Redrum!

Christian had his first major meltdown yesterday. IT . WAS . BAD.

We took him to baseball practice at the park like we normally do. Everything was fine. I dropped Ryan and Christian off, and I left to find a bathroom. When I got back, Ryan was carrying Christian to the car with all of his baseball gear in hand. Neither of them looked happy. I asked why they weren't practicing. "Christian doesn't want to. He just wants to play at the park," Ryan said. I told him that was unacceptable and that he needed to join the other kids. We all walked over to where everyone was playing but Christian would NOT let me put him down. "What is this?," I thought. "We do this every single week and now all the sudden he is being weird?" So... I sat with him, tried to play with him, tried to make it look annoyingly fun, and tried to get him to put on his batting helmet. HUGE mistake. When I put the helmet on him the fabric chin strap popped him in the chin... not hard at all... but he started to cry. Wait. He was already crying... he started to WAIL. Everyone there was worried about him and trying to comfort him, which made things worse for some reason. So, we decided to leave - quick. That is when things got really bad. He started screaming and kicking. At first, I tried reasoning with him and told him that he wasn't being very nice so we had to go home. Then, Ryan and I just ignored him. When we put him in the car he was literally screaming so loud it hurt our ears. "I WANT TO PLAY BASEBALL!!" He even started biting at his seat straps. He then figured out how to unbuckle himself - I think he planned on jumping out of the car. After over 10 minutes of that nonsense, I pulled over and got in the back with him. I brushed his hair with my fingers and pointed out things I saw as we drove by. He finally made himself stop crying so he could eat a piece of candy. He had just stopped crying when he realized that I had eaten part of it. It all started again. We could not get home quick enough! And then, as quickly as it started, it was over. Just like that. I don't know what came over him or why he was so upset, but I hope that is the last time he has a fit like that! This must be some way of showing independence or something.

I like to look at the pictures below as a reminder of how sweet he can be! ha ha ha ha!

http://matthewsbunch.blogspot.com/2009/08/little-christian.html
http://matthewsbunch.blogspot.com/2009/08/catch-up.html

Typing of impulsive behavior... I registered for some girlie things! It is so much fun window shopping. I just kept throwing frilly things on my wish list. I don't expect to get everything, and I know picking out the girl clothes on your own is half of the fun of giving the gift. Did you know Amazon has the cutest baby boutique listings? Wow! I loved just about everything over $50! Here are the places we have our baby registries:

http://www.amazon.com/babyregistry

http://www.target.com/registry/baby/26P4N786A0FOR

My favorite color is water!

Christian has been working on his colors, recognizing his ABC's and numbers, counting, and writing. He is 3 now and I figured most kids can do these things by this age. His nanny has been working with him using fridge magnets. I work with him at home on his little chalkboard/dry erase board. He also goes to the library for study time every Friday.

So far, he can recognize A-G. He is still working on H, I, and J. He is okay at recognizing numbers. He can count to 10 and can write a "C" for Christian. So, yeah... he is progressing.

But, he learns in such a different way. For example, red is not red to him. It is "stop." Green is "go"... yellow is "go slow".... blue is "water"... and so on. He is obviously not color blind, but just can't recall the actual names of colors. Even if we ask "Where is green?" he gets confused. But when we ask where "go" is, and he knows exactly what we are talking about. The same with his ABC's. He can point out "apple" (instead of "A"), "baseball" (instead of "B"), "Christian" (instead of "C"), "dog" (instead of "D"), "elephant" (instead of "E")... you get the idea. But if he is just asked where "A" is, he is lost. The letters don't have pictures of these word associations on them or with them. They are just plain letters.

He learns so fast in some areas, but really seems to struggle with learning these names. Maybe it just isn't his thing. But then again, he did learn his own full name and birthday when he was only 18 months.... so why is this any different? Hhhhmmm...

Lake Murray, OK #2

After Christian's game last Saturday, we drove up to Lake Murray for the day. The weather was awesome and we didn't have anything to do that afternoon - so why not squeeze that into our hectic schedule? It was great to see everyone out there again. We all love that place. Christian ran around with the "big kids" (not very big, but older than he is). He must have ran 5 miles that night playing hide-and-go-seek
...Who came up with that name anyway? Pretty cut and dry...
When it was finally time to head back, Christian heard the word "leave" and bolted. It was 9 o'clock at night and pitch black outside, not to mention we were in the woods. He is so quick! Luckily, he is awful at the hiding part. He can be very quiet for a very long time, but he picks the worst places to hide. Syndey and I found him pretty fast. Then she decided to "hide" with him.

The pictures explain it all.

More pictures from the day...

Go Rockhounds!!!

The weekend started out pretty hectic. Christian had his first baseball game on Saturday. We drove around town on Friday after work to try to find some pants and cleats that fit Christian, all in a rush to maybe get him to bed before 8:30 - btw, it didn't happen. After three stores, we found some bright red Adidas cleats. Christian thinks they are so totally awesome! He had to run laps around Dick's Sporting Goods to show how fast they make him go.

His game was scheduled to start at 9:15 on Saturday and the team is instructed to arrive 30 minutes early. We actually did get there on time, but couldn't find a parking place. Ryan ended up dropping us off by the field so he could park the 4Runner. Christian's fans took up half of the bleachers. What a celebrity! He had two sets of grandparents, his aunt Sami, his cousin Luke, his aunt "Chicken", his uncle Shane, and his parents all out there to route him on.
We were all cracking up hysterically the whole time! It was so incredibly funny and had absolutely NO organization to it! ha ha ha! Kids were just running all over the place.

Christian was the first to bat. Go #7! There were so many people on the field yelling directions that Christian didn't know where to run after he hit the ball. He just ran circles around the would-be pitcher's mound. I was laughing so hard my sides hurt! The team that isn't hitting gets to stand out on the field (yes - the whole team including some parents), so when the ball comes its like dropping meat into a piranha tank. All these mini ball players run as fast as they can after the ball. At one point, Christian took the ball out of another kid's glove. ha ha ha! The little girl (#8) on the team ran the wrong way around the bases, then decided that she did not want to run - so she walked - as slowly as she possibly could. The bigger girl on the team instists that she use her glove to throw the ball. The coach's son gave up before the game even started and spent his time kicking dirt in the dugout. Two other boys cried half the time on the field. I guess they were mad that they didn't ever catch the ball. It was greatness!