Too cute not to share

The boys have taken to dressing alike. This is not something that I am doing to them, this is something that they are choosing to do, I swear! The only thing I am guilty of is purchasing matching shirts. (I may have had help from a grandparent or two!) Admittedly, they have at least five different shirts that match. However, I have only suggested the idea of wearing the same shirt to them once, when Daddy brought home matching shirts from the American Chemical Society conference. I thought it would make a cute picture for his office. (It did, don't you think?)

However, this has started to be a regular thing for them. Jacob will pick out a shirt and if it's one he knows Zack has he'll shout, "Hey, Zack, want to wear your soccer (or baseball, or football, or chemistry, or Wall-E) shirt today?" Inevitably, the little one responds with a loud, "Yes!" and I'm off to run errands or to a playdate with twins!

It's official...

My child is officially a big kid. I've had my suspicions for a little while now, what with the start of kindergarten, the ability to read, and the challenging board games that we can now play. However, the icing on the cake was the loss of his first tooth.

The front bottom tooth has been loose for a little while now and a couple of weeks ago we noticed a big tooth coming in behind it. Jacob was not in any rush to pull it out...a little too afraid of what that would entail. The decision was made for him when he bit into an apple slice during lunch on Saturday. He looked at me with his eyes wide and said, "Mommy, I can't eat this apple." I turned to him I saw the tooth bent forward and the blood accompanying it. His apprehension was still there so it was Mommy to the rescue. I gently pulled it forward and then, when specifically directed, I twisted. Out came the tiniest baby tooth! (Don't tell him I said that!) Since Daddy was at graduation, we waited to tell him the big news. As Jacob so succinctly put it, "Now the tooth fairy is going to bring me cash!"

Zachary had to get in on the picture taking!

Baseball fever is an actual illness

Well, it's official. It happened. The boys have caught baseball fever. Please help find a cure!

I love my boys. And I love my husband. I'd do almost anything in the world for them. However, I was hoping against all hope that it would not involve baseball. I like sports, really I do. Soccer, football, swim team...bring it on. But I loathe baseball. It's slow, it's long, it's...ugh!

Now Andy, on the other hand, loves it. In the spring and summer, I can go out any night I want because then he can watch a game. I know he actually hopes that I won't come home early and make him turn the channel. He's been very tolerant of the fact that I cannot stand the sport. (It probably helps that I like football.) Astonishingly enough, he had nothing really to do with this new found addiction in our household. That's not to say that he hasn't supported it and encouraged it but I can honestly say that he had very little to do with the initial contraction of the disease.

The boys are now decked out with their own gloves, a new tee, bats, and baseballs galore. However, the icing on the cake is the helmet. Neither boy plays on a t-ball team so there is no reason that we need to own a batting helmet. (There wasn't time this year. Even Andy couldn't find a way to make it work.) But when Nana, Mommy, Daddy, and Zack went looking for some new baseball equipment a few weeks ago, Zack discovered the helmet while Daddy was checking everything else out. He put it on his head and proceeded to walk around the store. We (Mommy and Daddy) were hoping that we could do the old switcheroo at the check out...you know, get the stuff you really came for and leave the thing you didn't need and hopefully he'd forget about it. No such luck. We exited the store and the first thing he said was, "Where's my helmet?" In true grandma fashion, Nana went back into the store and we are now the proud owners of a t-ball helmet. All that said, I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story! The man who started it all...the one time a year Andy gets to play for real is when the college has it's softball tournament. The students are always a little surprised at how good he is.

Soccer Star(s)

Practice drills with an extra goalie!

(Yes, Jacob's supposed to be trying to score on his own teammate.)

Zack's still working on the idea of kicking the ball. It might have helped if he'd listened to Mommy and wore his sneakers instead of his flip flops.

One of the few shots during the game. (Jacob's working to help his teammate get the ball down the field.)

Unfortunately, the quality of this seasons soccer photos is poor. With only five games in the spring season, a tutoring schedule that required me to leave early or miss many of the games, and a little one no longer content to watch from the sidelines, there were not a lot of opportunities to take pictures. Add to that the fact that once I had a whole game to watch (and remembered the camera) the battery died during the first minutes of the game. Ugh! (I know, I know, excuses, excuses!)

Despite the lack of images to choose from, I was compelled to share a few snapshots. Zack was right in there with the big boys during the pregame practices. You may notice that he's still working on the "no hands in soccer" idea! Jacob is actually quite good. He keeps on top of the ball, plays the position he is assigned well, and scored a goal in the last game. (It was a very low scoring season for the entire team. He's had more success with scoring goals in previous seasons. However, the teams seemed more evenly matched this time around, which in my humble opinion is preferable.) This is not Mommy bragging...when he first started we kept shaking our heads wondering if he would ever figure out how to play, could he stop goofing off with the other players on the field, and if he would ever stop rolling on the ground when he had to play defense. It's amazing what four seasons (two fall, two spring) and a little growing up will do!