Lou Gehrig

Jack had his first, but certainly not his last, "presentation" of his school career yesterday.  He had to choose a great American, research it, write a report and then do a short 2 minute presentation.  The teachers encouraged them to dress up as well, but that was optional - I didn't tell him that :).

After looking over the list he narrowed it down to George W. Bush and Lou Gehrig.  2 extremes, but is was his choice.  He didn't really know much about Lou Gehrig other than that he was a baseball player and frankly he has been obsessed with George W. Bush so that was 

a no brainer.  In the end he decided to go with Lou Gehrig.  We did all of the research and he wrote out his report (he was excited to find that Mr. Gehrig both threw and batted LEFT handed just like him!).  As a side note, what a great guy Lou Gehrig was.  Were it not for Babe Ruth it is likely Lou Gehrig would have gone down as the greatest hitter the Yankees had seen until Mickey Mantle came along.  Not to mention that he held the Major League record for "most consecutive games played" until Cal Ripken broke the record during the 90's.  He played even though the pain of his illness was so bad he would double over in pain.  He didn't want to let any of his teammates down.  But I digress... well then it came time to come up with his costume.  Well, we have enough Boston Red Sox stuff to outfit a small army, but NOTHING owned by us with a New York Yankees emblem has ever crossed the thresh-hold of our home and I refused to buy a NY Yankees baseball hat just for the report, so we got creative...

We found the logo on line and printed it, cut it out and glued it to a piece of navy paper.  Then we taped it OVER the B on his Red Sox hat...  Yeah, we are pretty sure the baseball gods were not happy about that one.  It turned out pretty good, but every Red Sox fan we have told this story too kind of gets that look on their face like "I can't believe you would desecrate a Boston hat like that" or "Great now the curse is going to start all over again" :).  

That all remains to be seen, but he did get an A and I was VERY proud of all the work he put into it.  Go Jack!

Tubing!

Yesterday, we drove up to Boone, NC and went tubing!  We were so excited.  We gathered up our gear (no easy task when you aren't used to snowy conditions) and loaded it, along with the kids, into the car.  The drive was just over 2 hours and we needed to be there by about 11:40 to meet our group for our 12:00 time slot.  We went with Jack & Rich's YGuide tribe, but since several of the members have sisters in Gwen's tribe it sort of turned into a combined tribe outing.

As we left our neighborhood around 8:30 the temperature registered at about 47 degrees, a little chilly, but it was early.  As we drove higher into the mountains the gauge started dropping degree by degree until we finally reached Boone when it registered about 29 degrees - cold!  Well once we entered Boone we realized we needed to drive "up" the mountain to the tubing place.  So we maneuvered our way up the winding road that took us up another several hundred feet and then parked our car - temperature 18 degrees.  It was snowing, which should have been my first hint.  The snow was blowing, which should have been my second hint.  Take a hint?  Not me!  No, no, I got out of the car without a coat and proceeded to stand outside and pull stuff out of the bag for the kids to get "dressed" for the snow.  About 2 minutes into it I couldn't feel my fingers anymore.  For Pete's sake this is North Carolina - it doesn't get this cold!! (except in the mountains - I forgot)  The kids got ready in the car and we all headed down to the "lodge".  By the time I reached the "lodge" (small building that had heat, food and not much else) and trust me that was by the skin of my teeth... I had tears pouring down my face from the wind and I think I even had a wind burn.  I found my friend Michele and said to her "I have lived in some of the coldest parts of the country; Minnesota, Boston, Iowa and I have skied in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Colorado and I can tell you without a doubt I have never been as miserably cold as I am at this very minute".  She laughed her head off!  All I could think about was the 2 hours I had committed to tubing with the kids and wondered if any of us were dressed warm enough.

The kids were fired up and soooo excited, so Rich picked up the tickets and our group guide gave us a few instructions, then we went outside to hear a few more instructions.  Needless to say once we got outside I couldn't even concentrate on whatever it was the guy was saying.  The only thing I heard him say was, "Oh, by the way the wind is blowing at 25 - 30 miles an hour, the temperature is 17 degrees and the wind chill is -2".  At that point I flicked the frozen wind induced tears off my face and headed toward the pile of tubes.  I just kept saying "it's for the kids, it's for the kids..."  

Everybody had their own tube except Luke, he had to ride with me, so we all headed down the mountain and then the dreaded "ride" back up.  Ride is in quotes because we were going against the wind on the "magic carpet" so I'm not so sure I wouldn't have rather just stayed at the bottom and curled up into a ball and died right there.  BUT I was with Luke - fearless Luke.  "Come on Mom!  Can't we run up the magic carpet?  Why is it so slow?  Can I go by myself?  Can we go down the fast ones?"  I couldn't even answer the first question, my lips were frozen.  Thankfully Jack needed a little rest so I quickly volunteered to go with him and enjoyed a yummy hot chocolate and Jack's company.  Soon after I was joined by the other 3 in our posse and several others from our group.  After about 5 minutes it became clear that Gwen was turning green - we aren't sure why, but she had to stay in for the rest of the time (bummer, hee hee).  The boys? They headed right back out and I didn't see them again for another hour and even then Luke didn't understand why we had to leave (frankly if I hadn't birthed that child I wouldn't believe he was mine - I HATE being cold, he LOVES it!).  After a while Gwen recovered too, but didn't want to head back out.

Soon after we headed back home.  Fun times - a little cold, but absolutely FUN!  Although next time I will do a better job of checking the wind chill and temps.  

"Look Mom, 2 wheels!"

Yesterday, on a whim, we decided that Jack's bike was getting too small for him so he and Rich went out on a shopping trip.  Oddly, Rich doesn't think bikes should be reserved for holidays.  He has this philosophy that when a kid is ready for the next size up you should go out then and get it.  I guess I agree with him, but bikes were the "big gift" when we were kids.  I guess if we waited though, Jack would be riding his bike and his knees would be hitting his chin all summer long.  So, they went out yesterday.  After nearly an hour they decided on a blue bike, with "hand brakes!", and "a cool shock".  He MOTORED all over the street, while his little brother tried to keep up on his 4 wheeled bike.  They don't move nearly as fast as the 2 wheelers, so Luke decided he wanted the training wheels off. 

Hmmm... I guess I wasn't prepared for that.  I kept saying "but", but Luke wasn't buying any of my "buts".  So his dad took off the training wheels and within about 30 seconds he was off.  He didn't even look back.  It was as if he never needed them in the first place!  So, I checked training wheels of my list of "things that still prove I have a little one around" and added 

another item to my mental list of "things I will inevitably worry about".  Minute by minute, second by second it is becoming more and more evident that my baby, isn't much of a baby anymore.  

Thankfully he still loves a daily snuggle and this morning on our way to a play date with his friend Lily, he looked at me and said "i don't know what I would do without you mommy".  This is what I always say to him, but it was the first time he has ever said it to me.  After I choked down the lump in my throat, I said "me too, buddy".  It sort of made up for his little bout of independence yesterday :).