Spring 2013 7U Champions
I’ve Got Baseball On The Brain
Spring 2013 7U Champions
Category Archives: Mason
All things Mason
Don’t Let Them Grow Up
As I watched Cutler walk himself down the long hall to his classroom on Friday I thought to myself that I wished time would stand still and he wouldn’t get any older than he is now. While both he and Mason were babies and getting older I was always very careful to never say to myself “I can’t wait until they grow out of this stage” because I realized that at some point it was going to be the last time that I got to enjoy those stages with them. With Cutler and his battles we missed out on some of late night bottle feedings and watching him learn to crawl that we did with Mason. These were our last chances to enjoy those stages forever…at least until our grandkids come around, but that is never a given. So on Friday after thinking of it, I realized that our boys may have hit the “perfect” ages for us to hold on to them forever. Mason is old enough to be pretty self-sufficient, he enjoys sitting down and watching an entire sporting event, he can read and comprehend at a pretty high level and discuss intelligently what he reads, and more importantly he still likes to cuddle up with his parents and isn’t afraid to tell us he loves us. Cutler is at the age where he still calls us momma and dada, he loves on us and regularly accepts the love in return, he still enjoys holding our hands when we walk, yet he doesn’t require us to do everything for him, and everything new he experiences brings out a new glistening of joy in his eyes. But that was Friday. Today the boys bickered nonstop with Cutler pushing Mason’s buttons every chance he got and Mason always having to be right…about everything. As aggravating as it got, I won’t say it and I never will. I still don’t want them to grow up.
The Next Great Orator?
We just got back from the school district’s MLK Jr celebration where Mason read his letter to Dr King that I had mentioned in earlier posts. As a reminder, his letter was submitted to the district after he was selected from his school’s 2nd grade and he was one of four kids in the entire school district to be selected to read his letter. Yesterday he read the letter to his school during the morning announcements and tonight was the big night to read it on stage in front of quite the large audience. I am beyond proud of what he wrote, but also extremely proud at how he got on stage with little to no nerves, as the first of all the kids to read and knocked it out of the park while being shadowed by the Teacher of the Year.
PISD’s educator of the year
Mason’s educator of the year, his current teacher Mrs. James
Day 8: The Sugar Fairies Arrive
As Melanie and I are about to head out of the country for a week, in comes Grandma, Aunt Pat, and Grandma Pam to stay with the boys. I thought at first the spoiling would wait until we left, then I looked at the counter in the kitchen and found a pecan pie, cinnamon rolls, chocolate cinnamon cake, fudge of all sorts, m&ms, and Swedish fish. Not sure if this is all for the boys or to help the elderly keep up their energy level. Either way, I sat down with Mason tonight and asked him to please try and watch over the asylum while we are away. Hope the house is still standing upon our return.
Day 7: He Had A Dream
In school, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of MLK’s speech, the kids read and were taught about it and then asked to write a letter to Dr. King. A few weeks ago we were approached by his teacher letting us know that she had submitted Mason’s letter to be the one representing the school at the district level for a competition with the winners reading at a special celebration on the 23rd. While we were on the cruise I got an email from his teacher, Mrs. James, letting us know that he was one of four kids selected from the school district as a “winner”. I was very proud to read this email while on the boat, but I just read through what he wrote, as a copy was sent home, and I must say that win or lose I could never be more proud of him.
“Dear Dr. King,
I know how to keep your dream alive and the fiftieth anniversary, too. We can help more people be nice. We can help people if they are hurt. We can help people be safer and have equal rights. I will make a speech to the world like you. I will go everywhere and make this speech. I will help people in my school be a better person by telling them what is right and what is wrong. I learn about you in school and that makes me feel powerful to help others. Someday I might be like you.
Sincerely,
Mason Fricke”
Disney Cruise – Meeting The Characters
So we went on a cruise the week before Christmas, a Disney Cruise to be exact, and today I realized as part of my 365 days of posts I should be pushing to not procrastinate on these types of posts as well. So, I will start off with the simple post of the different kids pics meeting the characters. Unfortunately Disney likes to charge $4000 for all of their digital photos taken on the boat, fortunately they let this non professional take photos after they take theirs.
Day 5 – The Sports Loving Father’s Dream
A father that is also a lover of all things sport, I am currently living the dream of having an 8 year old son that is even more of a sports nut than myself. Once I was able to get past the aggravation that comes with the one million and one inane questions that come in a constant flow, it really is pretty fun to sit back and just soak in his enthusiasm. Tonight at dinner, following hockey practice, we sat at Jersey Mike’s and I watched him in giddy anticipation for the kick off of the BCS game where he proudly predicted “I think Florida St is going to win, or Auburn.” With predictions like that it may be time to take a trip to Vegas for a day at the sports book. As he was about to go to bed I informed that Auburn was up 14-3 and he pumped his fist in the air in pride of his prediction.
Master sports prognosticator.
Sitting With Santa
Here is a quick video of the boys sitting and chatting with Santa. Merry Christmas everyone!
That Just Happened
Introducing my new mini series of posts, or at least what could be a mini series are some odd/interesting/entertaining things that happen to me…
A. Walking out of the mall yesterday I saw a woman storming in all dressed up for some serious mall walking complete with her sony discman. Yes, that’s correct, it was a sony discman. First on the market in 1984 and apparently still going strong almost 30 years later. Hopefully she has one of the newer models that is a little more shock resistant to avoid the skips.
2. Today, I had to give directions to a mail man. While talking to my neighbor, the mailman pulled up cigarette in hand blazing away and asked us if we lived around here and then asked if we heard of a street a couple of blocks away. I learned two things from this experience…first of all, delivering mail must be one of the few professions where you can still smoke while working. Second, the mail man doesn’t know his away around as well as I thought and he doesn’t have a navigation system in the vehicle. After he left, Mike and I just stared at each other in amazement.
iii. Mason, being the deep thinker that he is, asked me “Dad, what does the fox say?” and when I replied with the song lyrics he interrupted me and said “No, seriously, what does a fox say?” I now understand where the song came from.
This Hurt…A LOT!
So Mason has now made the move in hockey to play goalie full time…despite my preference and my wallet’s preference. However, the move between the pipes isn’t what hurt. It was when the team from our rink that plays in the division above ours asked him to fill in for them at goalie. Now most people would assume that is a good thing being asked to play up a level, but the problem is that he has to play for the Blackhawks. To double the whammy, he did pretty well and was asked to play again and we have now been added to the email distribution where I occasionally get Blackhawk emails in my inbox. Where does a blue bleeding father draw the line?
Breaking my heart, one blocked shot at a time.
Team Fricke 