April 28th! Caleb RongBo's Birthday!!

Happy Birthday Caleb!

The little Chinese lad turns 7 years old today and he couldn't be happier.  We've sang happy birthday to him several times, including once when I was at work this morning.

We opened presents and had cake and opened presents and ate supper and opened presents... you get the idea.  

I'll do a more proper post soon but the pool table and G'pa are calling.  I must answer!

This is the lad with a tummy full of Chinese food and having Happy Birthday sung to him for the 42nd time of the day.  Happy boy!

The cake that G'ma Marlene made for him.  The purple guitar is a nice touch!

B4 & After...

Slide Boy! Slide!

Just a quick fun update.  Caleb had his second baseball game tonight and his team won 13 - 5.  That's not the good part, although it was good.  

The small Chinese Boy (who is not so small anymore) had two hits and scored off of both of them!  Not only did he score, but he slid into home plate both times.  

Oh sure, there was no need to slide either time, but after hearing people cheer the first time, I'm guessing there will be a LOT of self-gratuitous sliding in his near future.

I took no pictures tonight because I just wanted to watch the game for once.

I will include a picture though. Why?  Cause I like'em!

This is a shot of full-contact teeth brushing and laundry in our house.  Note, Robby has a pair of underwear on his head.

Until next time...

Happiness Is... A Warm Puppy

Caleb had, what I would consider, one of the greatest animal moments of his life the other night. He was tucked into bed, waiting for his big brother to go up into his bed (he doesn't like to go to sleep without Robby, at the very least, being in the room with him) when Rosey jumped up onto his bed, burrowed under the top blanket and snuggled with him.

The look on his face in the picture makes it seem like he was scared or worried, but he was really asking me if she could sleep there all night with him.  

Little does he know that she's a bit of a pain the proverbial shorts at night time with her over the blankets, then under the blankets, then sometimes in between the blankets routine.

Regardless, she snuggled with him for 3 or 4 minutes and he went to sleep a happy little camper.

The next day, he was doing some "family hunting" armed only with our camera (he broke his at the Grotto in West Bend the weekend before...) when he captured me, both of my unshaven chins,  and the beast.

If you can't read Rosey's face, she's thinking, "Get me away from this guy!!".

My theory on what Calebber McCheese chooses for a career path when he grows up?  Veterinarian.  He was deathly afraid of any living creature other than humans when we got him and now he's quite fascinated with most of them.  Still a bit weary, but fascinated.

A-Pie, Apple-Bo and Baseball

ARE YOU READY TO RUUUUUUUMMMMMBBBBBBLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEE?????????

Okay, I was more thinking about kicking off the local kids' baseball season than boxing or wrestling, "professional style", that is.

But as it were, it was a cold night, windy as the backside of 1000 head of cattle, and quite frankly, cold.

It was about 65 degrees at the start of game time but I wore my winter coat, hat and gloves just as well because there was a constant wind of rougly 30mph with gusts up to 45mph during the game. Not fun.  I would hanker a guess that the the temp was roughly 50 - 55 by the end of the game and most parents were quite keen on gathering their offspring and getting the lake of burning sulfur out of there!

The China boy at bat. He eventually got a hit and I'm not sure if his coach was more excited about it than we were, but needless to say at this point, we were both quite happy with his performance.

The Chinaman waiting for some action in the "narrow" outfield.

I had him warming up as he was the next batter up.  Problem is, he swings like his daddy, a bit stiff and slowing down in the follow thru.  I told Momma about it so she could work with him. I'm out of my game here...

Chinaman swinging at the perfect pitch!

And who was watching in the "wings"?  It's big brother Robby!

Batter UP!

Caleb is playing baseball again this year and is moving up to the level where the kids pitch the first two innings.  

Is that a good idea?  Who is to say, but it is what it is?

The first practice we had was at an indoor training facility in Pleasant Hill, called the Batters Box.  It has a small field in the building where the kids learn to run the bases along with batting cages.  There are probably 8 or 9 different batting cages differing in that in some of them, people pitch to you, and the others have machines that launch the balls out. 

There is a 40mph, 55mph and a couple of 70 mph boxes.  

Caleb's coach recommended putting the kids in the 40 mph hour one a couple of times prior to the first game where some kid is launching a 3lbs "rock" at them.  Since the balls in the cage always go over the plate, they tend to be much less terrified during the real games. 

Makes sense to me.

He batted that night of practice and I took Robby and him back up there one night last week.  It's not a cheap thing, but they had fun and it also revealed to me that Caleb needs to swing the bat at home everyday to get his muscles and stamina up a bit!

This is one of the times that Calebber actually connected with the ball.  He did pretty good his first time in, connecting with the ball probably 6 or 7 times out of the roughly 15 balls that the machine throws for a token.

Hippie boy Rob got in there next.  He had about 4 nice hits and connected with an additional 6 or 7 balls that ended up in various area's right around where he was standing.

I like this shot because you can actually see the ball coming in... that is, if you know where to look.  Caleb would hit more balls if he'd move in a little closer to the plate, but he wasn't about to!

W.W.C.K.D. - What Would Clark Kent Do?

On Saturday, we drove up to the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend Iowa.  We took Aunt Molly with us and met G'ma & G'pa Bushman over there.  

There will be an upcoming post or three about that after I get thru the hundreds of pictures we took, but on the walk from the parking lot to the Grotto, there was an actual working phone booth. 

Robby asked, "What's a phone booth?" and he was dead serious! 

Caleb was amazed as well once he realized what it was.

Oh the times, they are a changin'...