Can I please have a Band-Aid?

So after you become a mom,  your personal space is pretty much gone.  The kids follow me everywhere including the shower and bathroom.  Consequently they've asked what tampons are.  I just told them that they are kind of like a band-aid that sometimes girls have to put on an owey on their privates.  So today Austin was asking Paris if she could bring him a band-aid  - and you guessed it, she sweetly and helpfully brought him a tampon. 

The Walk Off Hit

It was Yankees vs Rays in the AAA MARA Little League battle of the top two teams for the regular season title. I am the official scorekeeper for the Yankees and so, yes, I can tell you the trends of just about every hitter in MARA little league baseball. I would like to think I help the team win due to my mad scorekeeping and statistical analyses; However, something magical happened on Thursday night and it had nothing to do with my scorekeeping.

Since our blog followership is like 6 people and most are all Shanda's girly friends I feel compelled to explain something briefly. A Walk-off hit is a hit that wins the game so that everyone literally walks off the field after you hit it because of the time and circumstances of the game. It is one of the most dramatic and exciting things that can happen in baseball, let alone sports.

Yesterday, with the regular season championship on the line, the score was tied 2-2 in the bottom of the last inning and Cooper was up to bat. There were two runners on base and I was vomiting behind the bleachers with anxiety (Just kidding, but seriously, more nervous than if it was me). The opposing team's coach iced Cooper and used his one and only allowed time out per game after Cooper entered the batter's box.

But like most good hitters, Cooper has a routine. He put the edge of his toe right up to the plate, made his footprint, and then drew a line right behind the heel of the footprint with his bat to make sure he had proper spacing at the plate (just like I taught him). He took a few practice swings and then waited. He choked up a little bit (wanted to make sure he made contact). And then he waited some more. And did it all over again.

Finally, we were ready to play ball. And when the pitch finally came and after all the waiting, Coop was ready to hit. He smacked the ball in between short and third. But the shortstop somehow gets to it in shallow left field. But the Yankee's fastest runner was on second and he was going all the way. The speedy Zach Budzik came wheeling around third. The throw to the catcher is ........not in time. Little league Madness! Kids swarm the field. Cooper walks off first base. The game is over. Yankees Win -- Yankees win. Cooper has just hit a walk-off base hit.

Dad was feeling good he got on the earlier flight home from New York and did not miss this game. For my money, little league baseball is the greatest entertainment on earth.

Cute little words

By the way, Paris has recently been saying lots of names, especially her brothers and her own.  They sound like this:

Dad - Dee - addy

Mom - Momay - with a bit of a british accent picked up from Will

Paris - Pabis

Will - Weely

Cooper - Puta - isn't this a swear word in Spanish or something? 

Those Silly Boys

Tonight the boys really pulled out some hilarious ones - 

First, Will and Cooper love going on Youtube and looking up classy things like "poop jokes" that feature lego characters doing, you guessed it, pooping. It's a hilarious time for them.  So tonight Will, Austin and I spent some quality time looking at Will's favorite poop joke before bed.  Then we looked up Susan Boyle on Youtube (the 47 year old woman with the amazing voice on Britain's Got Talent).

We all enjoyed Susan Boyle's performance and Will commented incredulously, "Wow, I can't believe this is on poop jokes!"  

That's the new name for Youtube if you didn't know.  As I'm writing this, it just doesn't seem as funny as it was in person, but trust me, it was.

Cooper has become a master manipulator lately.  Cuddling up to you at bedtime saying, "I just don't think we've spent enough time together lately." Or some such other comment designed to make you feel warm and snuggly but most of all, to let him stay up later.

So tonight Austin told the boys to get in their rooms to go to bed and he would be up in a minute to tuck them in.  He opened the door to Cooper's room to see Cooper shoving a cookie in his mouth with crumbs all over his face and three cookies in his other hand.  As soon as the door opened, Cooper said," Hi Dad! Want a cookie? I just got some extra ones just in case you or Will wanted one!"  Always the thoughtful one, refreshments on hand, just in case someone should stop by.

The Truth Shall Set You Free

Will: "Dad, I love you so much because you do not read the newspaper everyday, all day like those other dads." Will gives Dad a big hug.

Dad: "Thanks - Will" Mom and Dad chuckle.

Will: "Annnnndddddd, mostly because you go to work." 

Good to know I am loved because I leave. Classic.

Cooper's Birthday Marathon

Today is Cooper's 8th birthday, but it feels like it has been his birthday all week! I had a birthday party yesterday for him with his friends - the first party for him in years - I get really overwhelmed and nervous planning parties for the kids' birthdays because so many of their friends at school go all out for the parties.  We had a fun outdoor Olympic themed party planned but that got tossed when it was the monsoon rain season this week.  So we improvised with a baseball theme, baseball bingo which was fun, and making leather baseball wristbands which didn't work out so well. It's annoying because I spent so much time shopping for the darn stuff to make the wristbands, oh well.  So they mostly ended up playing wrestling mania upstairs and came down for cake and pizza covered in sweat! 

Then tonight we had family over for cake again to celebrate Cooper's birthday and my sister Shawn's birthday which is tomorrow.  My favorite quote of the evening was when Cooper opened his presents from Austin and said, "Oh cool! I got a cup!" Nice, and it isn't the pee-wee cup either this time by the way.  We get excited about these items at our house I guess.  He also got several lego sets and has spent lots of time putting them together. I am so excited about him using his brain for once instead of just playing the Wii or watching TV.  

I can't believe my baby is finally 8 and will be baptized in a couple of weeks.  

Love you Cooper! 

A Dainty Girl

Here is my dainty baby girl . . . . 

Who just ate half a dozen scrambled eggs for breakfast!

A Reasonable Question

Will:  Dad, if you cut your head off, can you tape it back on?

Dad:  No, you can't.

Will adores tape, he uses it on a daily basis to construct swords with sticks, make art projects or tape those pesky pieces of clothing back on that aren't laying just right.  One of his Christmas presents was a workbox full of tape of all sorts.

I'm Kind of Proud of my Cupcakes

These are the cupcakes that I made tonight for our Relief Society birthday party enrichment.  When my friend asked me to make them she warned me that mine would be sitting next to Krafty Katrina and Expert Jolin's cupcakes (two sisters with lots of talents in our ward).  She was basically saying "make sure yours don't look like crap."  Well here they are, and I am happy about them.  Maybe not to the expert level yet, but getting there.

BYU Trip

I had the chance to go to Utah a few weeks ago and see my little brother Skyler perform his senior recital at BYU.  My parents, brother Scott and Granny and Grandpa Stauder came also.  It was like old times with me and my brother sharing a hotel room and hanging out with the parents.  It was a fun weekend and great to see the old Y again.

Happy St. Patricks Day

I decided to reenter the blogging world with a Happy St. Patricks Day post.  Austin's family is Irish and always make a  big deal out of St. Patrick's Day.  My efforts were much more simple, Lucky Charms for breakfast, corned beef and cabbage and soda bread for dinner, and a few chocolate golden coins that the leprechauns left for the boys.  

Paris the Pianist

Paris definitely has taken interest to her Mom's Piano lessons. Everyday she tries to climb on the piano bench, gets stuck and asks for help. She then asks for me to put up some music so she can "play." Never mind Paris is 1 and has no clue how to read the music. She watches her Mom and her students and she knows how they do it. And then she plays and plays. She sometimes sings while she plays. She does it for like 15 - 20 minutes at a time. And not for the crowd, she does it whether people watch or not. I took some video the other day when she did not know I was filming. Enjoy Paris the Pianist at age 1. So this is what it is like to have a girl :)

My New Best Friend Shops at Walmart

Today Paris and I did the beginning of the month 7 hour shopping trip to Walmart and Costco to get food for the next two weeks.  We were in line at the deli at Walmart when I met my new best friend.  He was a big African-American guy with shades and a cool jacket on.  He was also being helped at the deli.  He started smiling at Paris and asking how old she was.  He asked me if she was my first kid, "No, I have two other boys in school."  

"Really?" he said, "I thought you couldn't be older than 18."

"No, I'm actually 32."  

"No way, wow you are a beautiful woman."

"Thanks," I said blushing and smiling.

Then as I walked away he called out, "Stay beautiful." Just like an entry in my yearbook or something.

Needless to say this was the highlight of my day. Black guys always like me because of my big booty.  That's ok, I'll take whatever compliments I can get.

Paris' First Shiner

Courtesy of . . . who else? Big brother Will.

Big Snow Day!

Twas the night before the snow day and the little boys were all tucked up in bed with their pjs and underwear inside out, a spoon under their pillow and two ice cubes safely slipped into the toilet.  All to make sure that the magical snow will fall.  Or so  Will's kindergarten colleague promised.  Will has been performing this ritual on and off for a few weeks now and it finally worked.  The boys woke me up at 5:20 a.m. to lots of snow and requests to check the news to see if school was cancelled.  Cooper was in tears that school wouldn't be cancelled and the snow would be melted when he got home.  But of course it is, it snows about once every two years in NC so they close school if there is even 1/4 inch of snow on the ground and today there is actually about two inches.  

Will made a huge snowball and threw it at me! Cooper scraped off the car twice and Paris was scared of the snow.  Later we had an old-fashioned taffy pull to pass the day.

Will's Big Break

You will have to excuse the poor camera work and poor artistic vision as Will only had his dad to work with on a day off. We have only had the MAC for a couple of weeks, so we will get better. This was taken with the built in camera on the laptop. But it is still kind of funny, albeit very cheesy. 

I like this picture of Austin

A cute picture of Austin I took last night . . . . 

but the words coming out of his mouth were "Let's go over the budget from November Shan."  Then I found out how much I went over in every category.  The budget review - always a pleasure.

THE BIG HALF-MARATHON, otherwise known as the only exciting thing in my life right now

Finally the day of the big half-marathon came! After a sleepless night and lots of butterflies in my stomach, my alarm rang at 6 a.m. to get ready for the big event. I rolled out of bed and started the clothes layering process for our run in the 28 degree weather (though it did warm up to the 30s by the time we started). My "team" (the friends I have been training with for months now) showed up a few minutes later and we drove up to the Charlotte Convention Center to check in and get ready for the race.

We were overwhelmed at all the people there to run the race especially the people we called "professionals" - the ones wearing tight spandex pants, also the old wrinkled men were professionals and the people already wearing t-shirts and shorts. Needless to say, I didn't look like a professional. It's ok though because I was there just to finish. The starting line was different than I expected, because there were so many people running the race, it was basically just a big crowd of people waiting to start running, we barely heard the shotgun and then finally we were off!

Alison kept us to a speedy pace for a couple of miles and then I started getting a bit of a sideache so Michelle and I let her go ahead and kept to a slower pace that I could handle - no pride here, I just wanted to finish without having to stop and walk. Then at about mile 4 something really fun happened, we were running on one side of a busy street that was closed down for the race and I heard two of my friends scream my name. They were driving to come cheer us on and were stuck in the traffic. That was a much-needed boost, especially since someone turned to me and said, did you know them? I felt like such a celebrity.

Then those same friends kept showing up at different mile markers along the way to cheer us on. I appreciated that SO much, it totally kept me excited and going. Also Austin and the kids made big signs and came to cheer me on - that was motivating too.

I truly enjoyed the entire race until about the last .2 mile when I just couldn't believe it wasn't done yet! Then I crossed the finish line and stopped on my wobbly legs and enjoyed a band and free food and drinks. Then my family and friends congratulated me so I felt special and the rest of the day I took naps and ate lots of chocolate and dreamed of my next race (probably in April and I know Tricia, Heather and Molly are dying to join in!)

Thanks for my cheerleaders and my team who made this such a fantastic and life-changing experience!

Cooper all bundled up to come watch the race.

Will and the sign he made for me.

The sign Austin and Cooper made - notice Cooper wrote, "I hope you can do it."

The first of 27 layers to try to keep warm.

"The Team" minus Jolin

Gingerbread Houses with Nonni

Getting the Christmas Tree!

We decided to start a family tradition of driving to the mountains to get our Christmas tree! It was a couple hours away and a lot of snacks and dvd watching later, but we found the perfect tree. We rode up to the tree farm on a tractor-pulled hay wagon with some other friendly NC folks. The trees were beautiful - we could have chosen any of them and would have loved them. We even got free cocoa and cider at the country store afterward! But no rhubarb-strawberry pie, peach cobbler or soup - they were all out of everything warm and yummy so we settled for a peppermint-chocolate chip shake from Chick-fil-a on the way home.