Tantrum Sandwich

During the week, our days are framed by tantrums. Good, old-fashioned, three-year-old tantrums. Between the hours of 8:00 am and 9:00 p.m. Emma Kate is, for the most part, sweet, fun and hilarious.

But, getting her up in the morning and putting her to bed at night--disastrous. In the mornings, I get ready and then go in try and get her up. She is a heavy sleeper and DOES NOT like it when is told to get up. If she had it her way, she would sleep until 9:00 every morning. Listen, I am not complaining about that part, the weekends are great. But, week days are not great. She moans and rolls over into a downward facing fetal position. It is like when a roly-poly rolls up for protection. I try to pull her night clothes off, and she completely tenses. When I finally get that accomplished, I try to put her day clothes on and she goes limp. She has a routine and she has it mastered. This is usually how we look when we finally get to the car:

or this (from today....)

The nights are not much better. For a child that hates to get up in the morning, you would think she liked sleep. Not so much. For the past 12 months or so, she has not gone to sleep before 9:30, and most nights 10:00. I know, I won't be earning any Mother of the Year awards. We have tried every trick known to man. But really, she just cannot fall asleep before 9:00. Not in a car, not in her bed, not in our bed, not on the couch watching a movie. My friend's kids and my nephews can fall asleep in a car, especially at night. Emma Kate has fallen asleep TWICE in the car since she turned one. TWICE people. And as soon as the car stops, she is wide awake again. So night time routines usually consist of whining, crying and lots of us telling her to GET BACK IN BED when she comes out for the 14th time. Every time she thinks of a valid reason for getting out of bed.

"Mommy, I need somfin to dwink"

"Daddy, my nose is runnin."

"Mommy, I need pants"

"Daddy, I don't want dese pants"

"Mommy, I need my fan on"

"Daddy, I am cold."

Back and forth, back and forth until finally she falls asleep. At 9:30. Or 10:00. Or even 10:30.So, I have come to accept that every week day of my life is like a tantrum sandwich. On the top and the bottom, we have full-blown tantrums and in the middle we have all that three-year-old gooey goodness, and I can live with that.

I can breathe again....

The Mighty Mighty Nuggets played their third game last night. It was a nail biter. I am just glad it is over.

There is a bit of history to be told about this match-up. Sure, the game was about the kids, blah blah blah. But, this ran deeper than the kids. There is some, um, history between the coaches. We knew when we first got the Mighty Mighty Nuggets schedule this year, that this was going to be the week of the Thomas/Otherguy showdown. Walking into the gym with mom and Emma Kate, I could almost see the tumbleweeds blowing by, the dust in my eyes and the tune that always plays when two cowboys face eachother in ol' Westerns.

On one side, Coach OtherGuy. Coach OtherGuy coaches his own son, who used to play for Mikey T in travel league. Mikey T beat Caoch Otherguy's rec team last year. Then, during travel ball, Coach Otherguy didn't like the way MikeyT coached. And so the rivalry was born.

There has been a lot more, but there is no need to go into that on the blogosphere. It should be left on the court, so............back to the gym.............

I was never worried about Mikey T's team, nor his temper. But Coack Otherguy can push Mikey T's buttons like no other. So I watched the game with bated breath. It was a defensive match-up and the score at half-time was a very low 11-6 (Nuggets leading). Coach Otherguy tried to call out MikeyT on some rules violations, but he was wrong. And so, the game continued.

Not one single point was scored in the third quarter. Not one. Either team, not one point. Mikey T and Unc looked relaxed and in control. I was shaking like a leaf. Spectators were pouring in waiting for the next game to start. A lady I have never seen before sat behind me and started making comments about Mikey T's coaching style. It was humorous. She would be devastated to know that she was talking about Mikey T right behind Mikey T's wife and biggest fan. But, I bit my tongue.

At one point, Mikey T and Coach Otherguy went from calm to, um, not so calm as the ref tried to decide if Coach Otherguy's son had five fouls, thus sending him to the bench. Mikey T said he did. Unc said he did. Coach Otherguy said he did not. As we waited, the two men showed their teeth like a scene from Twilight's New Moon. Mikey T was the over-protective Werewolf whose only mission was to protect his team's lead. Coach Otherguy was the bad vampire who just wanted blood and was getting desperate as the clock ticked away. It was tense.

The ref ruled. Coach Otherguy's son has five fouls. He's out. I held my breath as we all watched him walk to the bench. But there was time left to play and the Mighty Mighty Nuggets were holding on to a 12-8 lead.

Then, the Mighty Mighty Nuggets superstar player hit a three point basket and put the lead to seven with less than a minute to go. The clock ticked by as our players kept the other team in a desperate tizzy. The buzzer finally sounded and it was over. The Nuggets had won again, Mikey T did not get a technical and Coach Otherguy was miserable.

Thankfully, it does not look like we will have to play them again this season. Mikey T's team is the only team in the league with a 3-0 start.

Oh, and for the lady sitting behind me who said my Husband coaches like Bobby Knight, ma'am you have no idea what you are talking about. Mikey T is a passionate coach, yes. But Mikey T has never mistreated a player. He cares more about his players more than a lot of the parents. He knows how the kids are doing in school (remember, this is not a school league), he knows their family story, he knows their addresses. He personally picks them up from home or school if they have no transportation. They have slept in our home; they are friends with his daughters. Like I said, he is a passionate coach who loves the game, but loves his players more. But he cannot tolerate bad refs or bad coaches, and he will let them know it.

Sunshine!!

I hate the cold. Hate it. Not a fan of snow. It is cold and wet and keeps me inside. Yuck. So thankfully, we have dodged any of the potential "blizzards" they have predicted so far this winter. But it has still be tooooooo cold for comfort. I think God knew exactly what he was doing when he planted me in the great state of Alabama, even if I am a blue dot in a red state.

So, after weeks of COLD, WET weather, something odd happened on Monday. The SUN came out. And it heated the plains.

We threw on sneakers, grabbed the dog and headed to the Kiesel Park dog pen. Auburn has a great parks and rec department and this is the cream of their crop. In the back of Kiesel Park, there are two large dog runs where dog owners who live in college apartments or small lots with no yards converge with their best friends.

It was so pretty out and there were dogs of every make and model for Emma Kate to pet, hug and chase around. But they were not her favorite. Lucy was.

Lucy, who turned 8 in December, played fast and hard. For fifteen minutes. Then she let us know that she was done.

Man, I love these three.

Then we took Lucy back to Unc's house, where she is temporarily staying, and rested while watching some TV.

It was a good day.

Friday Night Lights

I am not sure what I would do if I didn't live in a college town. We get antsy around our house and need to GO SOMEWHERE. But, when you are on a strict budget and it is freezing outside, you are limited.

So on Friday nights in the winter, you will more than likely find us here.....

Auburn Gymnastics is cheap and fun and Emma Kate likes to watch the big girls tumble.

Last Friday, it was "Flip for the Cure" night. If you wore this shirt, you got in free.

Since they didn't have tees in Emma Kate and Ella Grace's size, Alicia and I took the youth medium and made it into this. I should have been a responsible blogger and taken step-by-step pictures and detailed a tutorial on how-to, but I am not that good.

Basically, we removed the sleeves, separated the front from the back and cut a a-line top pattern out of the two parts. Line it with some navy and white gingham, and POOF, a Flip for the Cure shirt for the littlest of fans.

Side Bar: Mikey T's team plays his arch enemy's team this evening. I hope for our household's happiness it is a Nugget victory. I promise to take pics.

This and That

I haven't been taking pictures of the Nuggets games and I am sorry. This week I remembered right as the buzzer sounded. I took these......

They won, so thankfully we are still undefeated. Oh, and Mikey T got a technical. Oops.

Nothing much else going on, except the fact that we have created a monster. Emma Kate's friend Ella Grace takes dance at a local studio. She asked us to come to a class "just to see if Emma Kate likes it."

Well, we went, and she did. She put on her dancing clothes at 3:30. The class started at 6:15. She was so giddy on the drive there she could hardly contain herself. When she gets excited, she talks in this really goofy voice and rambles. The ride sounded like this:

"Haha, this is yike da way to school....but its not da way to school. hahaha. its da way to dance yike da way to school hahhaha, yike when we go to school dis way, but we go de other way when we go to school ha ha ha because we are going to tumble, i mean 'nastics, i mean dance hahaha."

Silly.

When we came home, put on her new tap shoes and made us watch her tap dance in each bathroom for 15 minutes (each).

So, she loved it, both the tap and the ballet. It took me back to the first grade, when I took dance from the most graceful woman I have ever known. Mrs. Trotter was my school teacher and my dance teacher, a dear friend of my mom's and she was the perfect ballerina. Tall, bony, thin and beautiful. She had the patience of Job while trying to teach 14 little first graders how to stand in first position. When I watched Emma Kate in relevé with her arms over her head, I could almost picture myself doing the exact same thing 25 years ago. Wow.

I never got to thank Mrs. Trotter for lighting the spark that made me love dance for the rest of my life. Her beautiful life was cut very short by cancer, but I like to think that she knows and maybe even watched me watch my little girl put on those ballet shoes for the first time.

So, the jury is still out on if we will continue with dance or not, but if Emma Kate gets a vote I have no doubt what it will be.

Here we are again....

Is it really time yet? It cannot be. It just cannot be. But, alas, it is. Youth basketball has officially started for 2010. Didn't we just stop?

So, Mikey T is again coaching Auburn Rec basketball. He moved up an age group to be with "his boys," however, he only ended up with one "old basketball boy" on his new team. That means eight new "Bassetballboyz" for Emma Kate to fall in love with.

See, the thing is, I love basketball. I love youth sports,in general. Emma Kate has already declared that she does not want to play ball (I know, there is still time. She is only three.) rather, she wants to tumble (I do not foresee the Olympics in her future, but I can totally see her as a stunt woman.) So, I totally do not mind going to the games; in fact, I enjoy it. And it is a family affair as Unc is the assistant coach. Fun times. The thing is, Mikey T takes Auburn Recreation Youth Basketball very seriously. Don't get me wrong, he is a great coach, and parents clamor around to try and get him as their coach. He is a hot commodity in Auburn Recreation Youth Basketball. Most parents know that he also coaches the travel league basketball team, which is a bigger deal around these parts (try-outs, weekend tournaments, scouts, etc.) But to Mike, a game is a game is a game. He treats Auburn Recreation Youth Basketball just like the Raptors Travel League and the NBA. A games is a game is a game.

The 6th-7th grade Nuggets started their season with a super close game that resulted in a victory, which makes Mikey T 11-0 in Auburn Recreation Youth Basketball (if you carry over his undefeated season from last year). With every win, I can breath for a short minute before I realize that just puts that much more pressure on the next game.

I ask that you please pray for my Husband in the event that he does ever lose an Auburn Recreation Youth basketball game; I am not sure he'd recover.

Game #2 is tomorrow; I will get some pics. I forgot my camera last week. Although between Mikey T almost getting a technical called against him and the poor kid who began throwing up his dinner on the court in the middle of the second quarter, it's probably better I didn't have it with me.

Favorite

I promise to update more about Christmas, New Year's and Sissy's visit. Mostly, we just enjoyed being a whole family.