Neuty and the girls

Here's a great shot of Eric and Bella and Evey, taken a few weeks ago.

A big shout-out to Neuty, for coming by the house and helping me install a new screen door on the back door.

Something I have to tell you about Neuty: he treats Evey so well. He jokes with her, plays with her, gives her hugs... let's face it, my friends are all mid-30s dudes. Playing with a 4-year-old might not be high on any of their list of priorities. But Neuty always takes the time to be good to Evey, to play around with her, to make her feel special. And that is one of my favorite things about Neuty.

Cheers to you, Neuty.

And before your head gets too big, just remember... I'm 1-0 against your fantasy football team this year, jerky.

Adro and Evey, Sunday afternoon

No baby yet... Adrianne is feeling OK. She's starting to wonder if this will go all the way to Oct. 7th.

No soccer for Evey this weekend as she had a bit of a fever Friday night. 

We'll keep you posted if there is any baby news!

Sent from my Samsung Epic™ 4G

GOALLLLL!!!!

BIG news… Evey scored her first goal! Indeed, she scored it last Saturday on that rainy, drizzly morning.

It came late in the game… in fact, it may have been a golden goal, as both sides stopped playing immediately after the goal.

A low cross came from her left halfback. Evey timed her run perfectly, staying onside. The ball skipped once, Evey put her right foot out, made good contact despite the slippery conditions, and the ball spun into the lower right corner of the net! GOOOOOAAAAALLLLLLLL!!!!

OK, it didn't happen like that at all. It actually happened like:

Coach Kevin assembled the Yellow Giraffes. It was about time to pack it up as the rainy weather had all the parents fidgety.

Coack K declared, "Guys, let's get Evey a goal!" The kids fumbled around with the ball until Coach K finally propped it up right in front of an empty net. "Evey, kick it in the goal!" coach shouted. Evey kicked it, but it missed the goal. He got the ball back and teed it up again. The other kids all were confused, but continued bumping into each other and falling down as they are wont to do. Evey wound up and kicked this one into the back of the net! The kids all went wild with a goal celebration! Evey celebrated, but she didn't really understand... that she had just SCORED HER FIRST GOAL!!!

I had a smile ear to ear. It literally was the highlight of my weekend. I couldn't have been more proud.

I should mention, Evey was the only girl on the field for either team. It didn't slow her down. She had a nice game, getting more kicks in this week.

And another update... yesterday Evey was declared HAPPY FEET PLAYER OF THE WEEK again, making for back-to-back weeks, and three of these awards total. I even got an email from the coach about her skills. Here it is:  

Meg and I love working with Evey both at Leagues and at Lawrence Montessori, her enthusiasm is great and she always listens to us. I'm actually training with Meg to do weekly classes and came along to Lawrence Montessori last week; Evey did awesome there so I know she can do very well at Leagues as long as we encourage her! It seems like she has been practicing at home too, so whatever you guys are doing there, definitely keep it up -- I'm confident that she will keep improving with each week!

WOW! We're so proud of her... GREAT WORK EVEY, my SOCCER STAR!!!

BABY UPDATE: Adrianne is doing well, but nothing to report yet. She has an appointment tomorrow so maybe we'll learn something then. The due date is still Oct. 7th. If he goes the whole way, that's cool, we just hope for a healthy baby. The only complaint Adro has is some trouble sleeping, and occasional belly pains. But she's getting lots of back rubs.

OF NOTE: Today would have been my Dad's 65th birthday. We got the family together on Tuesday to do a toast to my Dad.

It's interesting how much has changed in a year. Last year, my Dad's birthday was reason to get a melancholy drunk on. This year, I was hopeful we'd be celebrating the birth of my son on my Dad's birthday.

My Dad certainly is not forgotten, but there were some serious strides made in 2011 to accept that Dad is gone and we're going to have to move on without him. Still miss him like crazy, but I think my brain finally understands the reality of it all. Here's to Boyd, who I know was watching Evey first goal on the sideline with me!

Player of the week -- again!

Evey was named the Happy Feet player of the week again! We are so proud of her.

She's been playing Saturday mornings and doing really well. She hustles and plays the whole game. In fact, her last game, she was one of only two players on her team still in the action! The rest had all dropped off like flies.

No goals yet... she seems too polite to kick it sometimes... but she's getting better each week.

Sent from my Samsung Epic™ 4G

Evey and Daddy's "Dark Knight"

This is a Seth-and-Evey collaboration, the first(?) of what I hope are many to come. Evey wanted me to draw something she could color. My favorite thing in the world to draw is Batman, so I fired one out for her.

She did all the colors, added the wings, and included the flower. She even added a "mom and dad" to it. Awesome!

The other day she asked me to draw my dad ("Pappa" to Evey) so she could color him. Well, I took it seriously and drew my best interpretation of my dad with a blue crayon I could accomplish. She took one look at it and said, "This doesn't look like Pappa!" and turned the page.

Oh well. At least she was thinking about him. I think I kinda nailed it, but 4-year-olds can be tough art critics.

I haven't posted/scanned/photographed enough of Evey's art in the past couple months. She's gotten really good at coloring, but more impressive to me, painting. She paints flowers, rainbows, girls in dresses, etc. I really need to sit down with her and show her some things, I think she'd pick them right up. She's a little artist. And she does get frustrated when things don't turn out the way she wants them... something I can relate to when it comes to art!

Big Sister School

Evey attended a class at LMH a few weeks ago where she learned the ins and outs of being a big sister. We got to see a real little baby, as well as a fake little baby (pictured), we watched a video, saw the hospital room where momma will have baby brother, etc.

Evey did great! She is now certified to be a big sister. She was a good listener through the entire class. The other little girl in the class was a chatterbox. I'm pretty sure they made her return to try big sister school again, because she couldnt've learned shit with her mouth flapping non-stop like that.

Yep.

Happy birthday, Momma

Happy birthday, babe. Pretty soon we're going to have a family of four. Thank you for that. All of my good karma of the last seven, eight years... I feel it is largely attributed to you. Can we please keep this going until you put me in the ground? That's my plan. I hope you're down with it.

-Seth