Joe left for the Philippines last month. He did a similar mini-deployment there last year too. It’s 6 weeks in length and he’ll be in the jungle/forest/river teaching the Filipino special forces soldiers how to fight the Islamist separatists there. He’s in charge of the boat training. Ha. James may be laughing right now, because he’s been on a boat with Joe and knows that Joe knows nothing about them. The Navy Seals were supposed to be teaching that part, but they backed out. So please forward all boat questions to Joe – he’ll love it. He’s been gone about 3 ½ weeks now and we have around 2 ½ to go. I’m sure he’ll have more to share when he returns (May 6thish).
Aaron and Daniel spiced up the month by getting strep (Dan twice). We’ve been amazingly strep free since Josh got his tonsils out last year, so I guess we were due for a little sickness. I just love antibiotics – they make that sort of illness bearable.
Aaron finished up his basketball season. He’s really hoping for a growth spurt soon. It was hard for him to rebound, but he was good at fast breaks. He’s in baseball now and, with Joe gone and me not really up for playing catch or batting practice, needing a bit more instruction. He’s a pretty good player, but isn’t a superstar, which he’d need to be in order to get noticed on this team. The coach has had a lot of these players on the team in the past, so Aaron gets a bit overlooked and is in the outfield a lot and is last in the batting lineup at the moment. Joshua is also playing baseball – mostly because we made him (which he reminds us of each game). It’s funny that he complains so much, because he hits the ball every time and seems to be a pretty decent player for his level. I do notice him doing little dances on the field, though, and looking toward the outfield when he should be looking at the game. Baseball really can be boring sometimes, so I guess I can’t blame him too much. Between the two of them we have baseball every night/day except for Sunday. I can’t wait until Joe gets back and at least helps out on Fridays/Saturdays. Last weekend I had to sit in the rain with all the kids, because I thought the game would be cancelled any minute (it wasn’t).
Aaron and Joshua have Pokemon fever right now. I naively thought we had escaped that fad in our family, but it has reared it’s ugly head and now I hear about nothing else. They wake up early to trade cards with neighbors before school and every time we rent a movie they want it to be a Pokemon one. Joe has laid down the law that he doesn’t want to hear about them at all, so I get to hear all of the particulars about their powers, etc. Lucky me!
Daniel is currently in a church soccer league. It meets once a week, which is great, and is cheap. Dan is speedy and energetic, so it’s a good sport for him. He looks so cute all decked out in his gear. Maggie wants to be part of all that gear too, I guess, because when I put tights on her on Sunday she calls them her “shin guards.” Dan’s obsession at the moment is “Super Mario Brothers” on the Wii. He wants to play it constantly and chats up all his friends about it. He even dreams about it. I really try to limit him on it, but I have to admit that I’ve probably let him play too much – it’s the only way I can catch a quick snooze on the couch when Maggie is napping! Daniel is doing well with reading right now, which is a relief, because for most of his life he has refused to sit down long enough to even be read to, let alone try to read himself. He would always groan and refuse when I’d try to read to him. But now he likes trying to sound out the words in the “Bob” books and gets very excited when he finishes a book. Yea!
Maggie is the shadow of all the boys. She goes everywhere that they go, so I think she’s going to be somewhat of a tomboy. She doesn’t let Daniel push her around – in fact, she’s sort of an instigator and will push his buttons. It’s not too fun, actually, since they bicker a lot. At other times Maggie is a sweetie and lots of fun. She is very enthusiastic about riding her bike these days and pedals off down the cul-de-sac with no help. She loves music and will sing away in her bed at night – it’s fun to stand outside the door and listen to “Twinkle, twinkle, little star” and “I am a child of God” in her high, off-key voice. She loves to help cook. Between her and Daniel, I’m counting on a lot of kitchen help in the future!
And to make our March perfect, we had a fun visit from Matt and Clairon Palmer and boys (see the previous post). It was so nice of them to make the trip. The cousins had so much fun playing sports and goofing off together. And the adults all had a good time eating and chatting.
Happy April to everyone!
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