All things Mason
Based on Mason’s current level of energy you would have no idea he has played three hockey games and a basketball this weekend. Not sure where this is coming from, but it’s a good thing there is no school tomorrow. If only I could find an off button.
Melanie just received this letter from Mason at his Valentine’s party at school. He is so full of love he has enough for the both of us. So glad Melanie was home from her trip and able to attend. The boys missed her terribly.
This morning, before school, Mason and I were watching the Olympics and in a cross country sprint skiing event a competitors ski broke and despite the ski being broken the competitor continued to push on including a couple of falls. No matter how much he struggled he kept getting up and pushing on. Mason asked if he was allowed to quit and didn’t have to finish and so I thought it was a great opportunity to show him that you don’t quit no matter what and rebutted with confusion as to why he isn’t allowed to quit. I continued to explain to him that he could quit, but he pushed on out of pride and that you only get so many opportunities to represent your country and compete like this. I thought that I had finally got him to realize what I was talking about and that it was a perfect learning opportunity, but alas the conversation ended with…”So, he doesn’t have to finish?” I just shook my head and walked away.
With the SMU, my graduate alma mater, moving into the top 25 in basketball for the first time in almost 30 years I thought I would post a few pictures of Mason playing catch in his only SMU shirt last November. I’m also hoping these sunny pictures will help bring back the warmth and sunny days just in time to start outdoor baseball practice.
With Melanie still out of town the boys and I headed out tonight for a Stars game. After an interesting experience taking them both to a Rangers game this past summer I swore I would never do this again. However, with Melanie out I figured I would give it another shot and in the end I was pleased with the outcome. Aside from Cutler’s constant button pushing it was a great time. Only way it could have been better is if Melanie had been there. We miss her.
So my calendar won’t show it on the site, but at least somewhere it is still Friday and so my streak of daily posts lives on. I would have posted something sooner, but thanks to Grammy giving me the night off by watching the boys I am just now settling down long enough to write a few words about absolutely nothing. I will share a photo of rookie from Dallas’ version of being vortexed and Mason enjoying a small flurry this afternoon. I’d complain about the cold, but ours is white mild compared to those north of us.
On Saturday night I took the boys to see the Harlem Globetrotters and on the way down somehow the discussion of bullies came into play and Mason started to explain to Cutler that if a bully was to bother him he should take three steps back and tell the teacher and to never confront the bully. After Mason gave him the standard rules, Cutler made up, or at least I hope he is making it up, a story of a bully at school named Shark. Mason told him that if the teacher doesn’t take care of him, he will have a word with him the next time he comes to pick up Cutler with me. These are moments that I dream of happening where Mason shows how much he cares about his brother and is willing to look out for him. It made me think of one of my favorite pictures and given it is Turn Back Thursday or whatever TBT stands for, I thought I would share. This was the boys running through the sprinklers at Nana and Papa Herman’s house in July of 2010. When the boys are at each other’s throats, I try to think back to moments like this to remind me that they do actually love each other. 🙂
And here are a few more of my favorite pictures from that day.
Melanie had to fly to Australia for what she claims is work this past Friday night and now the boys and are living the college life for the next two weeks. This includes eating nothing but dip and burgers for the super bowl, ordering pizza, running from sporting event one after the other, and turning our underwear inside out in order to use them just one more time before having to do the laundry. Ok, that last part is a joke…we just go commando.
At first I was a bit stressed at the thought of dealing with these two monkeys by myself for two weeks, but it is actually turning into a pretty good time…aside from missing Melanie terribly that is. It started a bit rocky on Saturday, but after having several discussion with the boys that involved pleading for peace between the two of them, things have started to go really well. That being said, it is still very early in the trip and we can not wait for Melanie’s return.
At the airport hiding our apprehension as we said good bye to Melanie.
Yesterday was Cutler’s beast mode day with two goals and this afternoon, before Seattle made a mockery of the Super Bowl, it was Mason’s turn as his hockey team won 36-1 or something along those lines. We quit keeping score around 20, but apparently one of the other parents was running the full tally. No goals for Mason though as he was playing goalie. I’d love to say it was a difficult effort to steer away so many shots to keep them to one, but I think he had maybe seven saves. I would place his beast mode in the ability to remember to watch for the puck if the other team happened to work their way down towards him, which in this case was very seldom thanks to a stellar effort from the entire team. Below are a couple of videos, the first one of Mason’s total concentration taking a slight lapse enabling him a split second to wave at me while the kids were going after the puck in the corner and the other is the celebration that followed this victory. I love watching these kids mob each other as if they just won the cup.
Team Fricke 