Crash Into Me

4pm phone call from daycare that Connor had been wounded playing on the blacktop. According to him, "Umm, Mom. Cameron tripped and got blood, um on his elbow and CRASH I tripped over him and BOOM my head hit the ground." That's a quality NTSB interview if you ask me.

Check out the massive bump on his forehead. He came up to my office for an hour at the end of the day and kept calling one of the women I work with by the wrong name. I asked him why and he smiled, shrugged his shoulders, and said "I don't know. Brain damage?" Nice. A wounded comedian.

More On Kindergarten

So, I thought I had some other good pictures on the other two cameras we were using that night, but alas, nothing but fuzzy garbage.

Graduation was so cute. They were all really exicted, but if you watch the video here (its the one dated 6/17 with the picture of the row of grey chairs) I think you'll see that Connor was pretty near the top. He did really well controlling himself to the best of his ability.

I'm a little sad to pass this milestone, but really only a little. He is so ready to move on. Honestly, he was ready to move on a year ago, but our county only has half-day kindergarten and I just couldn't reconcile all the running around that would have had to be done. I think he learned what he needed, but like every mom and dad I'm focused on what he didn't learn. He's not so good with money (that might be genetic!), and time/days/calendars. So, the two of us will work on those things over the summer.

Congratulations, Connor Tate! You did it!

The Graduate

I'll post more about this later, but Connor graduated from Kindergarten tonite. He did a great job in the ceremony. And he did a great job in Kindergarten. First grade, here we come!

A Dip

This lovely afternoon we made a family visit to the new "aquatic center" (pool) at Ida Lee park in Leesburg. The center has a nice sized lazy river pool, two big-ish water slides, a nice kids play area with three smaller slides, including a tube, and a bunch of other water features. What it doesn't have is an open water pool area. It was at capacity when we arrived and it really didn't seem that crowded. Full enough, but not overwhelmingly packed. Lots of lifeguards who seemed on top of their games. Clean bathrooms. Overall, a fun place to go if you don't want to sit! Came home tonite and made pizza on the grill--plain for Connor, onions/garlic/sliced tomatoes for Daddy, and white pizza with arugula for me. I had a whopping four bites of it! Whoo hoo!

Blooming

Okay, this hydrangea was dead last summer. I swear. Nothing but dead sticks pointing up into the air. Now, this. And a perfect blue with no special fertilizer. I note that the neighbor's blossoms have turned pink.

And this is one of our first vegetable experiments in full bloom--yellow squash. Pretty!

And this is what happens when you plant your magnolia in the right spot, it gets plenty of water, and you feed it the right things. That's the first blossom of the year and its easily 8-10 inches wide. And it smells SPECTACULAR.

Not Enough

I have not taken the time to document much of this year's baseball season. Its been a rainy one. About half of our games have been cancelled. But we've had fun, and the families have been just fantastic. And just like with the fall season, the kids have improved dramatically.

On Monday night the coach (Bob) switched things up and had the mom's coach on the field. It was really fun and I think everyone enjoyed it. Not that these shots really support that statement:

Connor had a great second inning playing shortstop. He made a few really good plays and he seemed intense and focused. Focus and intensity not being things we see often, it was remarkable. He was pumped by it and you could tell. He informed me last night whilst in the tub that this fall he would be "moving up to INSTRUCTIONAL ROOKIE". I didn't even know he knew that term existed. But he's right--he will. And we'll look forward to our third season of good old baseball fun.

Take Me Out (But Not For 10 Hours!)

Its' 6pm and we just got home from Washington Nationals stadium where Connor and 5 other Blueclaw teammates participated in Dulles Little League's day at the game. We woke up at around 7 this morning to get out of here on time for the parade lineup at 10:30am outside the stadium. We Metro pooled with 3 other families so the trip in was fun. The parade took about an hour, so we were done with the Little League bit by around 11:40am. First problem---the stadium didn't officially open until noon, so we had to mill around for awhile. Then we got food, but there was no where to sit so we had to sit on the ground. And did I mention that the game didn't start until 1:35pm? So we basically had two hours to kill. It was fine, but YEESH. When we finally got to our seats, we could only stand to sit in them for an inning or so---we were roasting in the sun. It was either leave, or try to get an usher to let us move to seats with some sun cover. We were successful at negotiating that and managed to stay until the end of the 7th inning before heading home. Nice ball park. But a really long day. And now Connor wants to go to the pool, which is just not happening for him. I am bushed.