T-Ball, Opening Day!

50 DEGREES AND RAINING ALL DAY, of course.  But that's all right.  We're almost through it.  And even if we did have warm weather, it's not like I'm about to put these Stay-Puft Marshmallow Legs in shorts, anyway. 

The day started with Opening Ceremony at 9:30, then he had a game at 1:15 and another at 3:15.  It's a lot of fun watching them play.  They don't seem to use any rules yet.  No one ever gets called out, and home runs are pretty common.  Cole got two on the first day!  It's funny to watch them running the bases with their giant helmets perched on top of their tiny shoulders.

Preschool conversations:  a few words here and there.....

 

....but mostly theatrical displays of arm-flailing:

Shawn followed this kid around for awhile, taking picture after picture before realizing, "Holy shit, that's not my kid."

By the end of the day, we just called them Gray Pants and Black Pants, because that was really the only way we could tell them apart from a distance:

Warming up...

And playing 1st base during the first game:

First hit:

 

And "refueling" between games with a baseball cupcake and a Capri Sun:

And, finally, the second game.  Another hit...

 

....followed by either celebrating said hit, or arguing with the umpire over his bullshit call!

A very fun first day!  We have another game tonight, but nothing else until after Spring Break.  Hopefully the weather improves a little bit by then.  It would at least make it more fun for Casey the Bean to tag along:

Whoa there, Belly, you still have 12 weeks to grow!

28 1/2 weeks and we finally got around to taking the first belly shots of this pregnancy.  Which is fine by me-- I've familiar with the process.  I'd like to get some professional family shots done before the end, though, since this is the very very very very last time we'll be doing this.  Seriously.  Enough is enough.  :P

I'm looking a little tense because my photographer-in-training husband can't have me moving around while he's shooting, lest anything end up blurry.  (Movement includes smiling, blinking and fetal stirring.)

And then there's this one.  I'm not sure, but I think somewhere in my head I'm performing Surrey with a Fringe on Top.

This one is unrelated to anything else in this post...

... but it clearly shows that the boys are in cahoots against me, and the older one is the ring leader.  Haven't found anything too suspicious since they toddled off to bed, but I'm on alert...

The first post in a long, healthy line of posts... I hope...

Gotta start blogging!  My kids are goofy and this phase of my life is a little crazy and I know I'm going to forget all the details if I don't start recording them.  Scrapbooking, I've found, is not for me.  So this seems like a good outlet!  (provided I use it and not let months go by without recording anything)

So I started the countdown yesterday!  I didn't really mean to.  I was actually going with the more laid-back approach of pretending it wasn't happening.  But in 12-ish weeks from now, there will be another baby in this house.  I think I'm done with the hardest parts.  The nausea and zombie-like exhaustion of the first trimester, the nasty winter of colds, sinus/ear infections and stomach viruses, the random attacks of pukiness when I least expected them... but I'm feeling pretty good now!  A little unattractive, perhaps, very puffy and veiny and bad haircut-y.  But good!  I even did some (slow) group cycling on Friday and a Turbo Fire DVD today, though all exercise gets a little uncomfortable through the Braxton Hicks contractions.

Yesterday I had my first hankerin' for something BAD.  >:)  A vodka martini... a gin and diet tonic with extra lime... a really tasty, refreshing IPA... a whole bottle of Cabernet?  SOMETHING.  I think it's just the antsiness of pregnancy.  The waiting game.  Knowing that you can't have something so you want it MORE.  It probably has something to do with the fact that I feel so much better now and I'd like to behave like a grown-up for a minute.  Go out with my husband, hear some live music, and have a couple drinks while wearing a pair of pants without an elastic waistband.  Anyway... that's that.  It was just a passing feeling that attacked me yesterday.  I will, of course, be sticking with my lemon water, and maybe a Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi if I'm feeling crazy.  And I'll make up for this deprivation by eating extra cookies.

SO!  Nesting.  Before the baby (GIRL!) arrives, we actually think that we're going to fix our skylights, paint all our walls, remodel two bathrooms, put wainscot in the nursery and stencil the walls, clean the garage (like, for real this time), and find some system of organization that actually works in a house that's too small for a family of five.  1,400 square feet was huge when it was just Shawn and I, but now it's... well, just smushy.  Anyway... Shawn is working a buttload of overtime all through April and into May, so we'll see what happens with our to-do list!  I certainly won't be heartbroken if June comes around and everything is sorta the same.  It's a silly thing to complain about and I realize that--even whilst I complain about it.  I think you just kinda make do with what you have, especially when that includes three healthy kids and a pretty happy family.
Yah-- if you made it this far, you probably read my blog title too.  Where the Sap Flows Like Wine.  You knew what was coming.  It's your own fault.