April

We started off April at a Family Dance at Hugh's school. It was amazing. The kids had a great time dancing. And by kids I mean Boone and Lawson. Calder was introduced more officially to the art of bottle flipping and spend a good portion of the evening flipping a water bottle with another boy his age. This was an amazing event and really cool to see so many people from the school community out. At one point they had a jigging contest. The adults went first and there was one man in particular who was AMAZING. When the kids' contest started, Boone meticulously imitated the jigger's moves. I wish I had a video. Boone didn't win the contest, but quite frankly, it was impressive.

This is Boone's attempt at smiling. Typically this is the face I get from him when I pull my phone out.

Although Calder may have needed a bit of coaxing to play with the boy his age, Boone needed none at all to engage with the kids at the dance. I won't surprised if Boone is one day a lady's man, but right now this was all about dancing and these girls were givin'er. When intermission hit, they started a game of dinosaurs and crawled around the floor attacking and eating each other. It was hilarious. Lawson spent the entire night on the dance floor. She may have not connected with many kids her age, but she did wear the soles of her shoes out dancing with Boone, Hugh, and I. Calder did ask me to dance once. Admittedly later it was because Hugh "suggested" he do it. I'll take it. 

My finger's full extension 30 hours post-surgery.

Near the beginning of the month I also had surgery on my finger to relieve a trigger finger. If you click the link you will see some pictures of what trigger finger looks like. Please note that is NOT my finger in the picture. My doctor told me the trigger fingers he typically sees are in women over 90 years old. Sigh. My doctor also told me it would be painless and informed me that he would work in the afternoon if he had it done. . . Well, in my opinion this is a load of crap.  I guess maybe if his work didn't didn't include having to type or pick up a pen, or use his hand at all for that matter. My hand was frozen until supper time the day of my surgery and he operated at 10 am. My finger was also so sore the next morning that I couldn't sign Calder's agenda. I couldn't even bend it for that matter. I ended up having to take the day after my surgery off work, but was then able to fumble through the rest of the week. My finger is not in great shape right now. It gets really stiff and is still sore at the incision point on the palm of my hand. My finger doesn't get stuck any more, so I guess I should be happy?


I haven't written much about Hugh's beard. It began out of laziness around Christmas. Then it turned into a joke to see how long it would last and now I think he really likes it.  Myself with some help of a hockey mom hair dresser convinced Hugh to get it groomed professionally. I wish I had a before picture, but here is the after. His beard was about 1.5 times as wide before this! It looks so much better. I think it was a treat for him to get some pampering as well. He has promised me he will go back every 6 weeks to get them to re-shape it, but we will see if he manages this!

Calder chose to play ball this spring and started some indoor practices in April. I originally volunteered to assistant coach, but when they made the second call out that they were short head coaches, I stepped up. After the indoor sessions I was quickly reminded of why I didn't want to head coach. Calder does not do his best listening or cooperating with instruction at ball (or maybe just with me there). It is frustrating because the only message I ever get from Hugh about Calder at hockey practice is that he worked hard and listened well. Calder and I have a delicate relationship and doing ball together is supposed to give us something positive to connect through. After the first 2 sessions I felt like the only thing ball was going to do for our relationship was damage.

When your kid throws his glove up in the air and plays catch with himself while playing outfield or when he does cartwheels at shortstop when a ball gets hit to the second base side of the infield, you have to give them a talk. And when they continue to do it after you speak to them, you and your husband might derail on your kid when he gets home about what is appropriate behavior and how to show respect for coaches, other players, and the game.

Calder LOVES hockey. He just likes ball. This alone may be a reason he isn't taking ball as seriously as he does hockey. I want him to fall in love with the game of ball the way Hugh and I have. The only way this has a possibility of happening is if Calder has a positive experience and this only has a chance of happening if he behaves appropriately. We had a good talk before our first outdoor practice and I am happy to report he did much better. Let's hope for all our sake that this continues!

During the hockey season Boone, Lawson and I have been a pretty good threesome. We hang out at the rink, run errands, or play at home while the boys are busy on the ice. Here we were at SaskMade where we picked up my sister a gorgeous, locally made, pottery bowl. They have a kid friendly space at the back with books and this rocker, so if you get a chance you should check it out. Might be a great place to find that end of year gift for a teacher or coach!

Lastly, I have a friend who runs a NHL playoff draft with a few of us hockey moms. Even if you aren't a big hockey fan, if from now until June your TV will be overrun with hockey, a draft is a great way to get interested in the outcome of some of those games. Not only that, the draft night is a great excuse to get out and visit with some lovely ladies.

This year I noted to our group that my mom is in a playoff draft and the last place team gets their entry fee back. We thought this might be fun near the end of the playoffs because those of us at the bottom might be in a fight for last. Well, there will be no fight at the end for last. My team consisting of Chicago, Montreal, and San Jose players is completely finished. If you don't follow hockey, Chicago may have been considered a favorite to win the Cup and Montreal was certainly a favorite to make it to the semi-finals. I actually left our draft night thinking I had a chance to win it all. I was that pleased with the team I picked. Needless to say, I'm just hoping the girls don't think I purposely picked this team to get my money back.

Looking forward to sunshine and spring fashion in May!  Happy Wednesday :-)