Size of the fight in the dog

I'm pasting below a quote from an email Jamie's baseball coach sent to me. I think it's pretty spot-on about his performance this Spring and his personality generally:

"Jimmy is a case study in heart and in intelligence...He has no experience, he knows no one, he is on the smallish side...Yet has improved by leaps and bounds...why? Because he cares. The batting machine is scary as hell, other stronger kids throwing the ball to him at 100 mph...etc. and what does he do he grinds for every little bit of territory he can get, builds on it, never really complains...he has gotten stronger and every one has noticed..great kid"

This came in the wake of an absolutely heart-stopping game last night. Your hometown Aggies, through a bewildering combination of bad luck, loss of attention and general bumbling found themselves entering the bottom of the 6th (last inning) down 9-5. Now the rule here is that you can only score 5 runs in an inning so we knew we could just do it. The first two kids got on and the third hit a ground-ball that began one of those incredible sequences by which a series of over-throws led to him coming all the way around to score, so suddenly it's 9-8 and no outs. The next kid gets on, thanks to a bobble, and gets moved to second on a ground out. So here comes Jamie. Very quickly gets to two strikes. You can tell he knew exactly what was going on and it was very very quiet, which with 24 7-8 year-old boys and their enthusiastic parents is highly unusual. On the third pitch the kid on second stole third. Jamie digs in...and cracks the next pitch to third, bringing home the tying run and putting himself on first. He then stole second and third and I would love to bring this story home (as it were) by saying Jamie got driven in for the winning run but the next two struck out so we ended with a hard-fought tie. But Jamie was grinning from ear to ear at first base after his big hit so that's good enough!

The Dead Chicken

(guest post by mommy)
Connor is, to quote his dear grandmother, a compulsive liar. I was driving him home from school today and asking questions about his day. Which apparently wasn't good; everyone was mad at him all day long. I asked him if he had a chance to feed the chickens. He had described this activity to me earlier in the week, telling me how he feeds them mud and it's disgusting. And he never never wanted to do it again. But now he's used to it so he'll do it again.

But today, he says, he did not feed the chickens, because a meteorite hit a plane then hit a chicken. And the chicken is dead. I burst out laughing, at which he reprimanded me, telling me that it's serious, the chicken is really dead. But don't worry, because the other class has chickens too, and in a couple of days, the chickens that were with the dead chicken will forget about it, and they'll put in a chicken from the other class. So the chickens won't be sad.

I didn't ask anymore questions about his day. I figured that was probably the big event.

Aggie up!

Yes, our lives are ruled by baseball these days and so much the better. I will continue to try and encapsulate the season in future posts, but there is something about its epic-ness that will forever elude description. Connor has had a blast doing T-ball. He particularly excels at running around the bases. Sometimes he even touches them; other times he can't be troubled. His interest has definitely increased as the season has gone on and I think part of it has to do with going to a lot of Jamie's practices and seeing all the things the big boys do. For his part, I think going to Connor's practices has helped Jamie in turn, because he likes to feel more advanced. Typically for Jamie this manifests itself not in superiority but in wanting to help. He likes to fetch balls for the coach, and the other day he started telling the kids to "get baseball ready!!" when they were in the field. He can be very encouraging as well, saying "Great job bunny!"

Connor has become sort of the team mascot for Jamie's group, the Aggies, and it's been wonderful how this team has accepted him as a part of the family. He is an expected, if sometimes chaotic, presence in the dugout. During breaks in the practice I often send him out to run the bases and it's great hearing the kids and parents yelling for him to go faster. If we win, the kids are usually rewarded by playing kick ball at the next practice, and Connor absolutely adores this because he gets to play. Everyone is very understanding of "Connor rules," by which he basically gets to keep running whether he is "out" or not. Also that they should NOT bean him in the head with the ball like they do to each other.

It's evident too that Connor sort of idolizes the boys (Jamie included of course). The other day at a game one of them walked by and Connor turned to Sarah with wonder in his eyes and said reverently "Look Mom! There's Stevie!" It was about how one would expect somebody to act if Derek Jeter walked by. I'm certain that if Connor had known to he would have asked for an autograph. So no surprise that Connor has asked us to get him an Aggies hat so his fan-dom would be even more official.

The idolization has also affected behavior. At the end of a big Aggies win on Saturday one of the kids took a ball right in the eye. Even as it began swelling quite shockingly, he tried desperately to stay in the game, but eventually we pulled him. The next day we were playing baseball in the front yard and Connor was running while I hit the ball and Jamie tried to get him out. As he was digging hard to "first" Connor wiped out on the driveway. I could tell instantly there would be scraped knees and forearms. Now, generally, Connor falls apart at a time like this, especially at the sight of a little blood. But before I could even get there, the little guy was pulling himself up and, even as he was crying, saying "I'm OK!!! I can still play!!!" and getting in running position! Even Jamie was impressed. "Just like Ben" he said reverently, referring to his brave Aggies teammate.

Why sometimes children should be heard but not seen

The boys fight constantly of course. I understand this is a fact of life and will be the case until they go to college at which point they can unite in discussing how strange their parents are. But they also play more and more these days and the moments of genuine, unaffected fun between them are heaven. Yesterday, we turned the sprinklers on in the back yard and let them run around in them since it hasn't rained in Houston in months (I'm actually not exaggerating). It was great sitting inside listening to them scream with delight. Connor also has this wonderful rippling laugh which I started to hear a lot of, so I came over to look out the window in eager anticipation of a moment of fraternal accord. What I saw, however, was Jamie sticking a plastic ball into the sprinkler then putting his lips on the ball and spluttering the liquid at Connor's face, as they both laughed riotously. Kind of wished I'd just been left with the sound of laughter.

Know thy brother, know thyself

We were at a pizza restaurant last night and Connor, as usual, was charming the waitress with his cute little, cherubic face, winning smile and silliness. She asked if he was tired (we were out later the usual after a baseball game - I'll have posts about baseball soon). He said no, and she said "Really? It's very late, you must be." Connor insisted that he was not at all tired. When she turned to Jamie he said, matter of factly, "You can't trust Connor." I'm afraid he's right. Jamie is incapable of any kind of sustained dishonesty or subterfuge. He doesn't even manage to stay hidden for long in hide and seek because he feels compelled to come clean about his location. I think he's bothered when someone else stays hidden because it must feel dishonest to him. Connor, on the other hand, loves nothing more than effectively hiding and would stay there forever, particularly if he had some forbidden treat to work on.

Jamie is also getting a sense of himself. He said to me the other day "I thought I was really fast and really strong, but -------- H. (kid in his class) is much stronger and faster." I was able to point out that said child was held back a year and is almost 9, but Jamie wasn't distressed, just found it curious.

Friends for Annabelle

Annabelle, our very patient cat, is much beloved by the the boys. Jamie comes out for a hug every night when he's done reading and hugs the two of us and always, religiously, Annabelle as well. Weirdly enough I get the sense that she rather likes Jamie's attention. Granted, every time he touches her she feels the need to rather furtively clean herself, but she never tries to get away from her. Even though he picks her up a lot more than she would like, he is very gentle with her. Connor is learning to be so. Annabelle has actually sat on Jamie's lap a couple of times (he was over the moon), but she does give Connor a wide berth still.

Connor would like to bring some friends for her. He's been talking about wanting a bunny for a while, which makes sense. He would also like a duck. I thought I had an easy out for this, since I pointed out that we would need water for it. Not so. "We could just buy a pond," he sensibly pointed out. Ah, OK, we'll think about the pond for Christmas.

Ladies man

We are of course fascinated in watching our kids social lives. Jamie has always been so reticent, that I think we worry a bit about the degree to which other kids have to pursue his friendship a bit. We really shouldn't. They always do pursue him and it should clearly indicate to us that he knows what he is doing. There are three little girls at his old school who are absolutely adorable and who always loved Jamie. We never felt like he did enough to reward their efforts though. It seems the aloof thing works though, particularly combined with odd outbursts of very silly behavior.

We still take Jamie to the St. Catherine's soccer group on Saturday mornings with Connor. On Saturday we saw one of the girl's mothers who told us that just last week she found a letter in her daughter's room. It read: "Dear Jamie, I love you. I want to marry you but I know I can't because I am way too young. I know you don't love me, but if you start to let me know. Love, -----" (name redacted).

I will never question his methods again.