Less of a post, more of a series of phrases.
Opening day in Cleveland, Indians baseball, sun, hot dogs, Stadium Mustard, Great Lakes Burning River IPA, salty peanuts, Swedish Fish, Sour Patch Kids, Ketchup wins the hot dog race, Me, Kade.
And the Tribe lost 4-2 in 10 innings.
Every year it seems like Kade’s birthday lasts a week, and this year was no different. We had his family party in Sandusky last Sunday on his actual birthday and then had his friends party this Sunday at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. I think it is a great venue for a child’s birthday party. Throw in the scavenger hunt, and the kids are exploring the entire grounds of the museum to cross items off of their list. Kade loved the whole thing and was beyond excited about the masks they provided, the cake and ice cream, the scavenger hunt, the feeding time of the animals in the outdoors portion. Happy Birthday little buddy and thanks to all of the friends that came to help celebrate.
Great idea… silly putty in bed. All that I have to say is olive oil works well to get it out of hair, nothing helps to get it out of bedding, and Kade is very lucky that Ted survived the incident. His HULK jams were not as fortunate.
Today was the start of a new era in our lives. We have entered into new territory being the parents of children participating in extracurricular activities. It will be 18+ years until we are out of this time of taxiing kids to and from practice, rehearsals, games, matches, events and performances. If this era is anything like today, that will be fine with me.
It was a beautiful day to start the South Euclid Lyndhurst Kids Soccer League. It was warm and the sun was shining. With this being Kade’s first venture into organized athletics, we were wondering how it would all unfold. He did great. Not that he was the best soccer player on the field, but he participated, listened to his coach and could not
wipe the smile off of his face. He ran all over the field with his grin and even let out a few screams of excitement throughout the game. When it was his turn, he played goalie and actually made two saves.
I was a proud father and tried to give him a few pointers along the way. Having never played soccer, I wasn’t trying to be a coach, but just encouraging him to drive the ball down the field and more importantly pay attention to where the ball is, especially when playing goalie. After some encouragement, I got him to get down in a more “ready” position for when the kids were trying to score. Ok, hands on your knees is not the best ready position but it looks better than having your hands in the net.
Hopefully baseball season will be as much fun. We had the managers meeting last week and I am starting practices next Saturday. Wish me luck!
More photos.
Today is Kade’s first day of pre-Kindergarten preschool. He will be going everyday for a half-day. I think he needs it, but Erika is still a little sad he will be at school everyday. He has been becoming more social and hopefully this will help him get over the hump. I think he started getting excited for school to start after meeting some of his classmates at Chuck-E-Cheese last week.
Erika is the parent helper at school today too, so that should help Kade’s transition. Although last year, Kade behaved worse when she was there than when she wasn’t. We shall see how this goes.
Happy start of the school year!
Kade and I redeemed one of our BOGO Indians tickets last night to go see the Tribe take on the Twins. It was a beautiful night for a game and we sat up in the View Box seats behind home plate. They are a little higher up, but I think he liked it because he could really see what is going on.
We packed some snacks to take along, but of course he didn’t want those. He wanted the assorted color Swedish Fish. So we got some of those, a hotdog and a Pepsi. Those were the only purchases we needed to make inside the park and he was very well behaved throughout the entire game.
Of course the Tribe could not complete the comeback to win but Grady Sizemore’s 3-run homerun in the 7th brought them to within 1, but Borowski and the bullpen could not keep it close. And as we watched the final out, the Twins won 8-5.
Kade is excited to go to the game on Sunday. It is a Father’s Day special and a Hafner bat give-away. Plus they will have all of the usual family fun day activities outside the stadium before the game. CC is supposed to pitch too so that will be good to see. Who knows how long it will be until they trade him.
Tonight, we went to Kade’s preschool, the South Euclid Co-op Preschool, for a Spring Fling ice cream social. I’ll admit I was in it more for the ice cream than the social, but the kids had a lot of fun. Kade and his schoolmates put on a performance and then Jungle Bob entertained the crowd. The part they loved the most was running around and dancing on the stage after Bob was finished. Fun times.
It is strange how you remember certain things from your own childhood from things that happen with your children. Kade has been intrigued with the song “Feel Good Inc.” by Gorillaz ever since I played the video for him long ago. He always got this sheepish look on his face like he was a little frightened of the characters and can describe a lot of the video based on memory.
Usually at dinner time we play WJCU, 88.7, but tonight I put on some of my music. As we were sitting there, the song came on and Kade all of the sudden jumps out of his seat… “I’m tired… I wanna go to bed”, that is what he says when he is embarrassed or acting shy.
Insert dreamy, going-back-to-my-childhood, music here.
It was the early 80′s, my father had a cassette tape of the J. Geils Band, Love Stinks. There was a track on that album that frightened me to death. It was… “No Anchovies, Please“. Every time he would get that tape out, I would beg not to hear it. The tape itself had a bad smell to it, I think it was some sort of marketing scheme. But the line at the end of the song, “Oh my God! That bowling ball, it’s my wife”, was enough to have me crying and telling my father to turn it off. (View the full lyrics here)
So while I think about Kade and his strange behavior with a certain song, I can look back to my own childhood and totally understand.
Happy Birthday, Bones. Today Kade turns four years old. He is a little man and a silly little boy wrapped up in one. It is amazing to look back at his baby pictures and see how much he has grown and in less than two months he will have wrapped up his first year of preschool. Since Easter falls on his birthday weekend this year, we will be having his party on Saturday. This change in the calendar has thrown [Erika's] schedule into chaos. Without a Saturday to prepare, she has taken to the task earlier than usual. So the Super Spider-man Shindig will be held at the Roth house Saturday. We just hope that our humble abode can hold all of the guests.
In honor of his birthday, here is a short-list of everything Kade these days:
Pirates, skulls, anatomy (human and otherwise), writing his name, drawing on his magna doodle, coloring, dancing, Spider-man, movies, playing with Liv, wearing his Spider-man or skeleton costume, reading stories and going to school.
Kade is very routine oriented and a little OCD. Every morning it is the same routine. He has to give me four kisses before I leave for work. He has to close the door and then he has to watch me back out the drive through the front window. If he is feeling especially OCD, he has to let the dogs out of their crates, feed them and then put the lid on the food container. If he is in this mood it is best to do every step just as he wants or else there will be hell to pay. That is just the morning, when I get home from work there is an all new set of instructions to follow including dinner, bathtime and bedtime etiquette. That does not even touch on how Erika has to tiptoe around situations while I am at work.
It is a little crazy that our oldest is four. It feels like he has been a part of our family forever but at the same time where did those years go? Even with all of his idiosyncrasies I look forward to everyday to see what he will say, draw or do next. He is truly a culmination of Erika and me. Happy Birthday, Kade. The big 0-4.
Chefin at home, originally uploaded by kyleroth.
Last night, Kade and Mama did some chefin at home. They went to Alesci’s and picked up some great ingredients to make pizza’s. This is Kade’s masterpiece… a broccoli and prosciutto pizza. Yum.
Kade loves to help out in the kitchen and play in his own little kitchen making us pretend meals as we eat our dinner. He lets us know what we have to drink too and really knows how to work the front of the house. Liv has started to follow in his footsteps, bringing us plastic mac and cheese, spaghetti and meatballs and corn on the cob.
