Parents Night Out (week 327)

The newest character in our house is Hoppy the Frog.  Actually, he doesn't really hop all that much because he lives under water in the aquarium that we bought as a present for USC.  We picked-out Hoppy at pet store, at the same time that we picked out the aquarium and he has quickly become an active and entertaining member of the family.   For the most part, he lays low behind the plant and on the colorful rocks waiting for feeding time.  When he sees you coming his way though, he goes crazy--bumping his nose up against the side of the aquarium glass, and jumping all over.  He is particularly good at following your finger up and down the glass, and cracks us up when he stands on his back two legs with his arms out.  We all like to stand in the kitchen and watch his antics, particularly when he is eating his little red blood worms.

This week was another busy one mixed with baseball, school, doctors visits, and time outs.  Both Chris and I have been having lots of tantrums in the afternoons lately.  Part of it is probably that we are feeding off each other, but the other part is that I have not been feeling very well.  My throat has been really swollen for the past few weeks and I have been extremely tired in the afternoons when we come home from school. The only benefit is that I have been sleeping through the night even as late as 7:00 am in the morning. Dr. Quan doesn't know exactly what it is that has been bothering me, so I had to see another doctor who gave me some medicine.  Since it is almost Easter next week, we don't have any baseball practice so mommy says that I need to rest next week.

Christopher has also been getting lots of time outs because Mommy and Daddy are trying to reign him in.  He has been a wild man when it comes to whining and crying just about everything.  I think that he is just going through a phase, but he is also extremely stubborn and resistant.  When Daddy tells him to do something, he pretends not to hear him and gets a timeout.  When he gets a timeout, he calls Daddy names and tells him he does not like him...which prolongs the timeout.  Sometimes, after the timeouts when he is supposed to tell Daddy what he did wrong he pretends not to know and gets another time out.  Three years old is a vicious cycle.

On Saturday, we had a baseball game against the Orioles.  I played a lot of first base and pitcher.  I had two big hits and pitched to Daddy in the bullpen off the mound during the innings when I wasn't hitting.  Right now, I love to hit "high hops" in the backyard and pitch innings with Daddy calling balls and strikes.  Daddy says my best chance of playing in a big stadium is probably through my pitching so I want to practice as much as I can.  

It is also March Madness right now and we are watching games in the backyard in between building the new porch and putting-in the flagstones on the side of the house.  On Saturday night, we got to make pizzas at St. Lukes for "Parents Night Out".  We had an awesome time and I heard that the parents also got together and had a fun dinner outside with our new patio furniture and heater.