Sunday, March 09, 2008

Our little nonconformist


Last week in the car on the way home from preschool, Lael announced, "You should have named me Hermione." I used to have a twinge of guilt that people have had such a hard time pronouncing her name and I constantly have to repeat it, but at this point, I realize we do not have an average child on our hands and she definitely needed an unusual name, so Lael fits and I am very glad we chose it for her. (For those of you who don't know, it's Hebrew and literally means "of God" - "la" is "of" and "El" means "God," as in Elohim.) Anyway, I just bought towels for my bathroom - I figure after being married 10 years, it's time to have a put-together, matching bathroom. I chose Restoration Hardware towels and bought them on sale and with a coupon and they were still outrageously expensive but they were available in a range of aquas, so now we each have our own coordinating, monogrammed towel in a different color. This has cut down on laundry significantly because now when a towel is on the ground, I know who's it is and I only end up washing them once a week. Erik and I have the same initials, so I ordered Erik one white towel so he couldn't forget which one was his because it really stands out and has his initials. Well, Lael's initals are LDS, which is kinda cute. The only problem is that when you do the traditional form of monogramming with the last name as the big letter and the initials of the other names on either side, it turns her initials into LSD. All I can say is: I didn't see that one coming and having Lael has been a trip.

Take T-ball for instance. Saturday was Opening Day, complete with a pancake breakfast, a parade and ballgames. Our little nonconformist did not want to wear her uniform. Lael thought she would be able to play in whatever shirt she wanted. We finally convinced her she would have to wear her team T-shirt with her No. 5 on the back, and then the coach said she would have to wear her hair in a ponytail because "it says so in the rules." I'm not so sure this is true. Although it was a battle, Lael finally let me do it. But her hair was so short (since she and her friend Ryan cut it a few weeks ago) that most of it fell out of the ponytail by the end of the games anyway. I am going to have to choose whether to fight the coach or my daughter and I'm interested in what the actual rules are but I think her hair is short enough that it is not a reasonable request. I'll keep you posted. There are five T-ball teams in the league this year and they wanted everyone to play on Opening Day, so it was a double header for her. Everyone on her team needed to go to the bathroom in the middle of the second game, so we ended up having a 10-minute potty break between innings. Then Lael made the classic T-ball play of throwing the ball home and beaning the runner in the back of the helmet. Another little girl ran all the way to first base with her bat while everyone yelled at her, "Drop the bat!" There are always plenty of moments worth watching in a T-ball game.

Both Oliver and Lael were playing at the same time. It was a little tough to watch both games at once but we could stand between the fields because they are close together and turn back and forth, and I'd rather have that than be there ALL the time (they each have two games and a practice a week). Oliver had a double play (two runners scored off one of his hits) in his game. It lasted more than two hours and the final score was 15-15. We went to the sporting goods store between events to complete the kids' uniforms and that night we went to a birthday party at Pump It Up and had Book Club, so Saturday was a full, crazy day. Thankfully, not every day is this crazy, but by the end of dealing with unreasonable kids, random disagreeable members of the community and a crazy schedule like this, it's a wonder I don't have a migraine every day and am sane at all! Here's hoping for a nice, calm birthday week for me.

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Play Ball!

Apparently it now practically takes an act of Congress to register your child for kindergarten in California. The list of things I had to bring to register Lael included our escrow papers, no less than 3 utility bills, 12 assorted completed and signed documents (including several applying for or denying financial aid for school lunches, etc.), proof of a doctor's appointment for a physical, and of course the only item that should reasonably be required: her birth certificate or passport. The secretary taking the registration obviously enjoyed her position of power and took her job very seriously. Unfortunately for me, I had no choice but to try and play the game as efficiently as possible because I didn't want to take a chance on Lael not getting into the Spanish immersion program (enrollment varies from year to year and sometimes they end up having a lottery) and I was juggling 3 kids while getting this done. To keep down on the clutter, we don't have our bills sent to the house, so I had printed out most of the bills from online. But I did provide them with our original insurance bill, so it was ironic when this was the bill the secretary chose to question. She pointed to the line that says "Please pay this amount" because next to that it says "This is not a bill." She said she could only accept bills. I told her that this was our bill and it says that there because we are set up on autopay. She finally chose to accept the document since she said was tired and feeling generous. This was my second appointment because she didn't accept some of the documents from the first time around, until I brought in the printed-out list of instructions from the district web site and she finally believed me that the documents in question were admissible. Geez Louise. You would think we lived in a sought-after school boundry, but we don't. People have lied to get in to some of the other schools in the district so they make everyone go through this to register. Anyway, after two appointments, loads of paperwork and one power-tripping secretary, Lael is finally registered for kindergarten!




The kids have started T-ball and baseball. The games start Saturday but the craziness has already begun with several practices a week and I am being bled for money. Lael has her pink bat, mit and helmet and is very excited to be playing her first (and possibly only) year of T-ball. I will probably never be team mom or PTA president because I am too cheap. I think a $150 team banner is a moronic waste of money and I would rather see the banner made by someone (if there has to be one). I just didn't have the energy to volunteer to do it myself this year so I forked out the $20 each for them. At the end of the season, the names will be placed in a hat and the "winner" gets the banner. If my kids are the "lucky" ones, they will be giving it to the coach. We don't have space for crap like that.

One of the reasons we chose to play with this league is because they don't schedule games on Sunday. So of course they scheduled the pictures for this Sunday (because obviously there isn't a game scheduled). We had a family powow tonight and decided we won't be participating because we would have to miss church. So we won't be in the team pictures, but that's how it goes. I was proud of them for making this decision because we did leave it up to them. We have friends that schedule their birthday parties around our kids (they have them on Saturdays when they would prefer to have them on Sundays, just so our kids can come). And I have friends that registered on National Scrapbook Day in May for a Saturday session instead of the Sunday session, just so I can come. I really appreciate this and I feel like if we are inconsistent, people won't continue to help us respect Sundays. And I think it's how we show God we really do get it and we respect him.

Despite the inauspicious start to the season, I really do hope the kids enjoy playing. I have to give up enough of my time for them to be able to do it and it means I will be hanging out with Henry, keeping him from eating rocks and grass, a lot for the next few months. I caught the little rascal splashing in the toilet for the first time tonight. It has begun ... but that is an issue for another post!