You Know You Have a Bunch of Little Ones, #7

You know you have a bunch of little ones when you start cutting Daddy's food up into little pieces.

Bedtime Hair

One night I asked Catherine to brush her hair when she got ready for bed to try to prevent all the tangles the next day. This was the result: Really, Mom, it's all the rage!

You Know You Have a Bunch of Little Ones, #6

You know you have a bunch of little ones when you are glad you only had to get up twice during the night.

Dominic and His Baby Bwoder

On Sunday we all went to Mass together and before hand we were treated to a running commentary from Dominic.

Dominic: "Dat's my baby bwoder."

Dominic: "I wuv my baby bwoder. He's so cute."

Dominic: "I have to be nice to my baby bwoder."

Smiles all around.

At least he gets quiet (for the most part) when Mass begins.

We Have a Contract!

We have been house hunting for the past 5 months and after a month-long negotiation, we now have a contract on a house! We are moving out to the country. It's only about 10 miles or so from here, to the east. The house is only 9 years old and the layout is very similar to ours. The dining area is bigger (yay!), which was the main thing we didn't like about this house. The best part is it sits on almost 8 acres! About half of it is fenced off (they had horses) in a couple different sections. There is a big machine shed (Dan likes that!). Between our new place and the neighbor's property there is a woodsy, hilly area with a small pond. And as for neighbors, there are really only 2 houses that are within view. It will sure be different.

So, if everything works out, we will be moving soon! Yikes! Packing and moving with 4 little ones will be interesting, to say the least.

Switch Pitcher...

Interesting story about a guy who is a switch PITCHER. He was homeschooled through eighth grade, and went to Creighton.

See original article here

Ambidextrous pitcher's pro debut brings game to standstill

Saturday, June 21, 2008

WorldNetDaily

Baseball has thousands of rules developed over its history to solve most any dilemma, but when a switch-hitter came to the plate to face a switch-pitcher in a minor league contest last night, the game came to a standstill.
In his professional debut, Pat Venditte of the Staten Island Yankees – a natural right-hander whose father taught him to pitch with either arm – played cat-and-mouse in the ninth inning with the Brooklyn Cyclones' Ralph Henriquez as each player tried to gain an advantage, holding up the game for seven minutes.

With a custom-made glove, Venditte switched hands each time Henriquez switched sides of the plate, seeking an edge based on the conventional baseball wisdom that left-handed batters fare better against right-handed pitchers and vice versa.

Video of the faceoff has been posted online.

The teams eventually appealed to the umpires, who decided the batter and pitcher could both change sides one time per at-bat. They ruled the batter must declare first, favoring the pitcher, who could adjust accordingly. Venditte used his right arm to strike out Henriquez, batting right, on four pitches to end the game.
Venditte's scoreless ninth inning sealed a 7-2 win over the Cyclones in the Yankees' Class A Penn League contest.

Venditte's extraordinary skill began developing at the age of 3 when his father, Pat Sr., a life-long ballplayer himself, came up with the idea, according to the Sporting News.
"One day in the batting cage, I just said to myself, 'Why can't someone throw with both arms?'''
Switch-pitcher Pat Venditte in a showdown with switch-hitter Ralph Henriquez in Class A minor league game last night

Pat Sr., a retired Omaha, Neb., schoolteacher, said he never imagined his son would take his game to the professional level – he just wanted to spend time with him.
"You prioritize the things you want to do in a lifetime, and you get those things done," Pat Sr. told the Sporting News. "I think too often we put our kids on the back burner. Fortunately, my wife and I had kids later in life. So we were able to arrange our priorities a little differently."
Father and son began a daily training regimen that continued through high school, 100 throws from the right and 120 from the left. But Pat Jr.'s ambidextrous development was not limited to baseball. He learned to kick and punt a football with both legs, and his mother, who homeschooled him through the eighth grade, taught him to write equally well with either hand.
In high school, the Sporting News said, father and son were at the gym every morning at 6 a.m. to work out.

Venditte, 22, said he still is not sure exactly why his father did it.
"It was all pretty strenuous when I was younger," he said. "He obviously thought it would be an advantage for me. I'm just grateful he did what he did.''
Venditte attracted the Yankees' attention as a walk-on pitcher at Creighton University. He decided to return for his senior season after New York drafted him in the 45th round. The Yankees picked him 20th this year after he posted strong numbers – a 9-3 record with seven saves, a 3.34 ERA and 101 strikeouts in 86 1/3 innings.
The Yankees' director of amateur scouting, Damon Oppenheimer, says the organization views Venditte as strictly a right-handed prospect, "but the idea that he can do this and has shown the ability to get out lefties makes it more exciting."
Venditte says he has more power from the right side, hitting 88 to 90 mph, but still can reach the low- to mid-80s from the left, where he relies more on breaking pitches and changing speeds.

Staten Island manager Pat McMahon told the Sporting News Venditte's ability will test traditional assumptions about how much rest a pitcher needs between outings.
"Pat is very comfortable pitching left and right," McMahon said, "so we'll just have to see after he pitches right if he needs a little time before he can pitch using his left."
The manager is excited about options Venditte gives him when matching up with opponents.
"It really is like having two pitchers in one," he said.
In high school, Venditte regularly started Friday as a lefthander and Monday as a right-hander. During the week, he pitched from both sides as a reliever.
Pat Sr. says his son has never had significant soreness or pain in either arm, pointing to daily long-toss sessions growing up as the secret.
"One day he stood at home plate in Creighton's stadium and threw a ball over the left-field fence right-handed, then turned and threw a ball over the right-field fence left-handed," Pat Sr. told the Sporting News, noting both fences were 335 feet away.
Pat Sr. said he never has had to convince coaches, at any level, to let his son pitch with both arms.

"One coach after another just let him pitch, and the development just started to happen," he said.
Venditte downplays his ambidexterity.
"When you're younger, kids don't realize what's going on," he told the Sporting News. "I didn't even realize it was that big of a deal. To me it's still not. I've been doing it my whole life. It's just what I do, what I have to do to be effective."

(For fear of Janet taking over this blog, I am trying to make an effort to blog about guy things whenever I get a chance!)

The First Real Haircut

Here is Joseph before: Joseph says, hey mom can't you get rid of some of this stuff?
One day Mom picked up the scissors and just started cutting (look at those eyes, don't you just want to eat him up?):
Don't worry, Grandmas, it will grow back!

You Know Mom is Tired, #4

You know mom is tired when she catches herself putting the mayo in the bread drawer after making sandwiches.

If You Make It, They Will Clap

The other night when I was almost done making dinner, the kids came swarming out to the kitchen acting like they hadn't eaten in a week. When I told them we were having rice noodles (kid lingo for my version of pad thai), loud applause and cheers broke out among them all. How's that for a before dinner pick-me-up?

Is That All You've Got?

Today I took Joseph in for his one year checkup. All the way through the exam, he did fine and he never fussed or fought against anything. When it came time for shots, I held his little hands and waited for the big cry. And waited. And waited. Then I realized the nurses had already given them. He didn't cry! Wow! All the other kids cried when they got shots. I felt his body stiffen, but he looked at the nurses, seeming to say, "No big deal."

Then I had to take him down to the lab to get his little finger poked for the lead screening and I thought, surely he'll cry for this. All he did was a one second little fuss, and then the look on his face said, "Is that all you've got?" He seemed to be fascinated by the blood slowly being squeezed out of his finger. It was weird. I felt like I could have even let go of him and he would have been just fine.

I suppose you are never done being surprised by your kids!

Pool Time!

Over the weekend the kids got to play in our new kiddie pool. They loved it. Even Joseph just crawled right in. Kiddie pools weren't this fancy when I was a kid! Once Dan turned on the hose to spray water out of this "palm tree," Dominic did not want to do anything but hold onto it and aim the direction of the spray. It took him a long time to get wet.
Meanwhile, Joseph wandered off and began picking bark off of one of the trees, which is one of his current favorite things to do.
Anne did not last long in the pool, but the other three got a lot of use out of it. Once we turned the sprayer off, Dominic turned his attention to the hand-pump. Hey, Daddy, maybe next time we can let the kids pump up the pool!

Going Downtown

On Saturday we ventured out, heading downtown to the Old Town area in Wichita. First, we stopped at the Farmer's Market, which (silly me!) I thought would be a bunch of farmers selling fresh fruit and vegetables out of the back of their trucks or behind a little stand. There were big booths all over, selling everything from crafts, clothes, jewelry, jelly, and salsa, to locally grown chicken and buffalo meat. There were tons of fresh flowers for sale, as well as one booth with fresh veggies. They even had a band playing and singing folksy music down at one end. The kids enjoyed just hanging out for a while and looking at everything. Peek a boo!
After that we headed over to the area with the "tricky" fountain. Each row shoots off at different times and then occasionally they all fall silent for a while. Daddy took Joseph for an up close look (and feel!):
Catherine eventually got very enthused about the fountain and got very soaked:
I got wet, too, Mom:

Daddy Dan

We celebrated Father's Day yesterday with grilled steak, corn on the cob, and cherry pie. (Dan grilled the steaks, I made the pie.) It was all good!

At Mass earlier in the day, our parish priest was talking about the importance of fathers being involved with their children. He talked about some study from a few years ago where they asked fathers to keep track of how much time they spent with their children over a couple weeks. The average was 17 minutes a day. Meanwhile, they secretly asked the mothers to keep track of how much time the fathers spent with their children and they reported an average of 1.7 minutes a day. I'm sure the real average was somewhere in the middle, but if they had included Dan in this study, he would have been way off the chart!

Dan makes spending time with his family a priority. He reads to the kids, takes them outside to play all the time, lets them "help" him in the garden, and they love nothing more than to snuggle with Daddy on the couch.

So here's to Daddy Dan, an off the chart kind of daddy!

You Know You Have a Bunch of Little Ones, #5

You know you have a bunch of little ones when you are out and about with all of them, continually counting heads, and all of a sudden you panic, thinking, where is so-n-so, and then you realize oh, he's in my arms.

The Orange Guy

On Saturday Dan was out in the garage frying some chicken and french fries in the Fry Daddy, when the Orange Guy came. His name is actually Bill, but he is the orange guy. A couple of years ago, the doorbell rang and when Dan opened it, there was this guy holding an orange and a grapefruit. Boy, was Dan startled when the guy pulled out a knife! He proceeded to cut pieces off the fruit for a sample, but he about gave Dan a heart attack in the process. A few times a year, Bill drives to California and/or Texas and brings back oranges and grapefruit and sometimes strawberries. Then, he goes door-to-door selling boxes of the fruit. Big boxes. It really doesn't cost much more than buying it at the grocery store and it sure tastes a lot better. We have become repeat customers. So, needless to say, this week we are feasting on oranges and grapefruit!