An Adventure in Tee-Ball

Well, I was going to fix the "friends and neighbors" post Ryan so thoughtfully finished and published for me, but this is much more interesting:



We have finished the soccer season, now tee-ball has begun. This time only Drew is doing it (in the hopes that we can finally get Aimee going in the horseback riding lessons that have been so ridiculously difficult to procure so far), but they have practices twice a week, so it's just as fun as soccer with two! At any rate, I knew we had practice last night at 5:30, and with the soccer season experience under my belt perhaps I should have been preparing for it all afternoon, but instead I thought an hour's preparation should do it...At 4:20 I gave a fifteen-minute warning to Drew and his friend from next door, who were playing legos on the kitchen table. They looked at me, but it was doubtful that anything actually registered. Then my mom called and we talked for a "few" minutes while I watched the little boys play -i.e., splash in the water table and raid the dog food - in the backyard. At 4:45 I hung up and began a mad dash to make up for lost time (especially since I was definitely not dressed to go anywhere), but the potty-training Ryan immediately informed me that there had been an...um, accident. Hey, no problem, especially since we were outside, and I cleaned him up in short order. I had to use the hose, though, for part of the clean-up (not on him!), and when I was finished, Ryan (mostly naked now), wanted to help. I let him while I gathered up my things to take inside, including the wipes and a couple bags from the clean-up. I had only taken in some books, however - and told Drew and his friend it was definitely time to be done! - when Chase began to cry, both because was wet as well as because he wanted the hose, so I went back outside, turned the hose off, and tried to get both boys inside. At that, Ryan became extremely upset - so mild a term for the storm that is an unhappy Ryan! - and very difficult to handle, but I manuevered him inside, along with a wet and also-crying Chase. I began sorting through a basket of clean clothes in the laundry area to look for some clean clothes for Chase, and Ryan began asking for chocolate milk. He had already had some, and I was really too busy anyway, so I offered some other options, at which he threw his cup at me. Time-out. More clothes searching, and LOTS more crying, from both sides of the room, as Chase continued to wail at me as well. Drew's friend finally went home, and I directed Drew to get ready for tee-ball. Now if he can make it from one end of our small house to the other without getting distracted, we're doing great, so sending him on a task this size is doubtful, but this time he did mange to change clothes and begin thinking about finding his glove. At the mention of the glove, Ryan, released from time-out, began to "ask" for a glove to take. We do have two, thankfully, and they had been seen together earlier in the day, but no one could remember where, of course, so I instructed Drew to go look as I herded the little boys to the back to get them dressed. I dressed Chase (he and Ryan were both still screaming) then had to grab something from the front of the house, when I glanced at the back door and realized I had forgotten to bring in the bags of dirty things. I went out to get them and saw that Daisy (the dog) had torn up both bags, as well as the bag of wipes, and scattered all contents under the trampoline. I told her in no uncertain terms how I felt about her, as Drew bemoaned to me that he still couldn't find the gloves. I asked him to help me keep an eye on the still-crying Chase while I cleaned up the mess under the trampoline, and after doing so, we all went inside again, found the gloves quite by accident as we passed by them, and went to put some clothes on Ryan. We discovered him, however, asleep on the hope chest in my bedroom - still, of course, naked! I called Dave and asked him if might be home in time to take Drew, but he didn't think he would make it time. I told him what was going on and that we would probably be late, if we could make it at all. He started laughing and I told him I would talk to him later. :-) I calmed Chase down, got dressed, then dressed Ryan, avoiding his kicking feet (he was not thrilled about being roused, as you can imagine). I grabbed the diaper back, the gloves, a ball, and the three boys and got them into the car fairly smoothly, then dashed across the street to fetch Aimee from her friend's house. All secured in the car, we saw we were not too late, and so we made our way to the Y, which is only a couple miles away, fortunately. Unfortunately, it seems most of Lexingon County enrolled kids in tee-ball and baseball, and all the teams practice on the same nights, so we had to park as far away as we possibily could have. I pushed Chase in the stroller and carried Ryan on my back, but had still missed half the practice by the time we made it to the field. That was really a blessing in itself, though, because Aimee was bored (bored, bored, bored, bored, and bored...oh, and hungry, too...), and Ryan and Chase were absolutely determined to go anywhere but the nice green patch of field I had parked us in. We were all hungry and tired as we marched back to the car, but when we got in, Ryan still wanted to push some buttons...He climed in, tucked himself in a corner of the car and refused to get in his seat. In carefully measured tones, I offered a compromise, suggesting he sit in the booster seat we allow him to use for short distances, and he agreed to that. As soon as I started the car, however, he unbuckled, smiling smugly at me. Without a word, I opened the door, picked him before he could escape, and placed him in his usual carseat - buckling quickly! He thrashed and screamed the all the way home, and one of the other kids wondered aloud how I could be so callous to his suffering. Actually I thought being silent was as much empathy as I could muster. :-) Upon making it home I let Dave feed the older kids while I sat and nursed Chase, pretty much fried by that point. But we survived, and I'm sure we'll do it again before the season is over!