Chukkers

In late June, several of our friends loaded up a few cars and headed to Franklin, TN, to attend the Chukkers for Charity Polo game. Barry's Aunt T works for an organization called Saddle Up! that uses horses to provide recreational therapy to children with physical and mental disabilities. (Go to http://www.saddleupnashville.org/ to read more about this awesome organization). Saddle Up! co-sponsors Chukkers for Charity, a charity polo match that benefits Saddle Up! and Rochelle Center. T told us about the event several years ago, and we finally made it this summer!

Canon spent his first night away from us. He stayed with Nonna & Poppa at Barry's grandparents house. We were sad to leave him but excited to have a carefree day and night with our friends. We spent most of that Saturday morning roaming around Franklin buying food and drinks for the day. We finally made it to the game about 2:00 where we set up our spread under the cabanas and waited for the match to begin. In attendance were Grant and Leslie, Lydia, Houston, Kyle and Mandy, Ed and Leslie, Sam and Alicia, and David and T.

To say it was hot is an understatement. I won't go into too much detail, but I will say that the napkins we brought for the food served double duty as sweat mops! It was all worth it for the fun and fellowship we had that afternoon. To be quite honest, I didn't watch too much of the game. Instead, I ate, drank and was merry! We participated in the traditional stomping of the divets during half-time. Kyle and Mandy fought over the one divet we found before the kids . We stayed long after the match was over and continued to enjoy each other's company. Sam challenged the boys to a footrace from one goal post to the other. Ironically, he quit half-way down the field and claimed himself the winner!!

After packing up, we pretended to have enough energy to eat out at the Red Pony in downtown Franklin. We decided to call it a night when we watched the chef microwave Ed's Bananas Foster. I don't think we realized how truly old we have gotten. We were back at the hotel and in bed by 11:00. Despite this senior moment, we had an amazing weekend and hope to make this an annual event.

Father's Day

I am almost embarrassed to even write about Barry's first Father's Day. It did not go at all as I had planned, but somehow we were both amazingly happy at the end of the day. I had had many thoughts in the previous week of how I wanted this day to go. After all, a man only gets one First Father's Day, and I wanted this day to be perfect for Barry. I tried to put aside everything that I wanted for him and tried to think about what he would want.

Besides Canon and myself, what Barry loves more than anything else is hanging out with all of his friends. They can be doing anything from playing basketball in 100 degree heat to making new trails for the mini-bike we acquired when Canon was a mere week old. (That's a whole different story that I might find the patience to write later!). You may have already read that we recently moved into our new house just across the street from a beautiful park. It's great for kids with swings and lots of room to just run around, but it's also great for adults because it has horseshoe stakes and a bocci ball "field." Barry and his boys took to these two games immediately. In fact, the second day I was in the hospital after having Canon, Barry went home to take a shower. I called him, oh about three hours later when he still hadn't returned, only to find that he was throwing horseshoes with two of his buddies. My point is, he loves these two games. So, I thought maybe a Bocci Ball / Horseshoe Tournament would be a great idea for his first Father's Day. I imagined the guys in their polo shirts, shorts, and flip-flops concentrating deeply on each toss while the women ran back and forth from the house, refreshing drinks and keeping themselves cool (my imagination was obviously stuck in the 1950's at that particular moment!). There would be a huge bracket that I would have drawn perfectly and set up on an easle so the guys could read it easily. It would list each of Barry's friends and who they would play and when, all narrowing down to one Bocci Ball / Horseshoe Champion. There might even be a trophy!!!

Do you know how fast time flies when you have a new baby, you don't have to work for the whole summer, and you have three other friends with brand new babies who are also not working? Let me tell you, it is easy to lose yourself in the fun of it all and concentrate solely on how perfect everything is. Needless to say, Father's Day quickly approached, and I had not so much as bought a piece of posterboard to draw my perfect bracket, much less invited friends over or bought refreshments. Sadly, Barry's first Father's Day was not going to involve horseshoes, bocci balls, or all of his friends.

I decided then that I would make his day the next most perfect day I could think of and just let him choose what he wanted to do. I imagined he would be gone most of the day, either working out or rounding up a group of boys to do something creative. They'd probably go swimming or play basketball, and I would stay home and clean out the garage - something I have been meaning to tackle since we moved in and something Barry has mentioned on more than one occasion that he would like to see done. This would be the second-most-perfect Father's Day.

I woke up early, determined to follow through with my plan. I got myself and Canon ready for church, then woke Barry up to get himself ready while we went on to church for an early reception. Sleeping late: 1 point.

That was the last point I earned all day.

After church, Barry came home and mowed the yard, though I assured him I would do it. We then went to Josh and Mary's and swam for a couple of hours (OK, maybe that earned me another point). Then Barry dropped Canon and me off at home while he went to the grocery store so that he could cook us something for dinner. Two things you should know here: Barry despises spending money on groceries when he can go out to eat for a much less expense (or so he thinks), and he rarely wants to eat at home because it's so much fun to go out to dinner. Again, I told him I could do all of this, but he wanted to do it. I gave in. It was his day, after all, so who was I to argue with what he wanted to do.

So Barry went to the grocery store, cooked dinner, and cleaned up afterwards. Who was this man, and where was my husband? As you can imagine, it ended up being a perfect day despite my incessant, yet poor planning. Barry did exactly what he wanted to do, which I was surprised to find was not hanging out with his buddies. People always say that life changes after you have children. I guess I thought they mostly meant that the eating out, late nights with friends, and frequent weekend trips would stop. But those things haven't changed at all for us. Instead, I think the biggest change is turning those things down - only every once in awhile - to privately enjoy our new trio.

Mommy, Who?

I returned to work when Canon was six weeks old to finish out the year with my students. After five weeks back in the classroom, summer finally came and I began enjoying life as a stay-at-home mom, at least for the next two months. The first thing on my agenda: getting back my pre-baby physique. Fortunately, I have lots of friends who are in the same dilemma, so it wasn't difficult to find someone to hold me accountable.

Mandy and I started doing CrossFit the first week in June. Mary joined us a few weeks later. CrossFit is a cardio/weight-lifting exercise program that Mandy and Kyle have been doing for some years now. They have tons of equipment and a nice set-up outside for fresh-air workouts. Basically, we check the CrossFit website every morning for that day's exercise, then decide if we actually want to do that one or choose our own. We usually do what the website recommends. The workout incorporates anywhere from three to five different exercises that you do over and over again as fast as you can. We do pull-ups, sit-ups, bench presses, squats, cleans, push-ups - not all in one workout, of course. Occasionally, running is a part of the routine which, in the dead of summer, is our least favorite thing to do. In other words, we spend about 30 minutes sweating, yelling, and agonizing over the extra layer of blubber we have accumulated over the previous year, then look at our three boys watching us from their strollers and realize it's all worth it!

The best part of our daily workouts is watching Canon, Luke, and Colt interact with one another. They are finally beginning to show interest in each other. Where they used to lay on the floor and randomly hit each other, they will now turn their heads to look at what the other one is doing. Luke has even begun smiling at Canon and Colt and reaching for him. It's so much fun to watch them discover new things!

We took this video of Canon and Luke in mid-June.