Baseball season has been launched at the Smitheroni house.  Well, actually...  you can't say "baseball" without someone correcting you.  Shaeleigh plays softball with a pitching machine and Chance plays t-ball.  YiLin plays a hybrid.  But let's be clear - no one plays "baseball."

Sadly, just about all of Shaeleigh's games and Chance's games are at exactly the same day and time.  Since I signed up to be an assistant coach on Shaeleigh's team, Kenn has Chance's games and I've got Shaeleigh's.  Luckily, YiLin plays on a different day. 

Shaeleigh's team is the Pink Panthers.  They are currently 3-2.  She got her first (and second) hit on Saturday which pretty much made her weekend.  She's a pretty good fielder and has a good arm.  She played catcher for a few innings on Saturday as well which was not her favorite.  The gear pretty much consumes her.  Everytime a ball got past her she'd have to lumber over to get it - looking like she could barely move.  Coach Bruce starting shouting, "game speed Shaeleigh, game speed."  HAHAHA - I could hear her mumbling, "Well, I can't really move in this stuff.  I can't see through this mask.  Where's the ball?  I can't bend over.  Is this innning over yet?"

I'll have to get a few action shots of her before the season is over.

Chance plays for the Spiders.  They started their season later so he's only had one game. 

Here he is, "sitting on his bucket" as his coach says.  Kenn reports that Chance has a lot of enthusiasm.  Coach Mike drew lines in the dirt to keep him from poaching.  This seems to be a key difference in the sexes.  The girls are yappin' and yappin' and playing in the dirt and when the ball is hit they just keep on yappin' and ball will roll by 2 or 3 of them before anyone notices.  The boys are yappin' and yappin' and playing in the dirt but when the ball is hit there's a free for all as they all run and chase after the ball in a swarm. 

Chance, ready for the ball.

How cute is that?

Little boy.  Big bat.

So while we are on Chance...  I think we will have to rename him to, "The boy who will not stop talking."  I think most of the time we must tune 50% of his noises out because it's never so apparent that he talks so much as it is when we go to church.  Whenever the rest of the church is quiet, there's Chance's voice always going.  Usually saying something embarassing.

Some recent examples:

• I tell him to stop talking.  He responds with, "Mommy, your breath is stinky."  I smile and kiss him on the top of the head to which he shouts, "MOM!  Now you're getting the stink on my hair!"
• A woman walks past after communion and he says, "WOW, that lady smelled GOOD!  Did you smell her?  She smelt GOOD!"  (and yes, he's standing an pointing her out."
• There's have been multiple, "This is SO boring!" and "Was that the last song?" which is always nice for your kid to say loudly during the lull.
• And then there was Easter Sunday when the priest was getting enthusiastic with the delivery of his homily and Chance looks up and shouts, "What's he getting all mad about?" 

 Our little angel.

YiLin has been watching his siblings closely and has mastered the art of looking ready.

He is playing in a league for kids 6 years through high school with various disabilities.  We weren't sure how that was going to work out but he had his first game last weekend and it seems to be a good fit.  He definitely understands the basics (hit the ball, run to the base, field the ball and throw it first or at least in the direction everyone is pointing) but with this league he can also change positions every batter pitch and no one is going to care.  The coach pitches to the kids.  Some of the older kids get regular overhand pitch.  Most get an underhand toss.  And after about 15 pitches or so, they will bring out a t-ball stand.  I liked that they always started out giving the kids a chance to hit a real pitch.  YiLin ended up with the t-ball stand his first two times at bat but actually hit a pitch his third time up.

YiLin running to third.  Both Kenn and I have noticed how much his running and general coordination has improved.  He used to trip and stumble so much.  Now he's getting pretty fast and bends his arms when he runs.  He rarely squats down because he's out of breath like he used to on short walks.  He's really gaining ground.

Look!  I made it to third!!!

Thinking about the steal.

A kid free photo.  I took this in our backyard one morning last week.  It was so beautifully foggy.

Aw... speaking of beautiful.  Brotherly love.

Okay guys, that's enough of the love.  There's a reason they sell boy's suits for under $20.

Happy Easter!

How about a smile boys?  This isn't Vogue.

That's better.

In China it's tradition to pose with the peace sign.

But YiLin is already catching on.  Here in the Smitheroni house, we pose with Moose antlers (or something).  Remember this guy:

 The pose that's sweeping the nation.

And with a final sad note....

We lost our dear sweet Pea-Eye.  We never knew exactly how old he was but was not a young fella.  Never the brightest bulb on the porch but he could chase a tennis ball until he reached the point of exhaustion and always seemed to have a smile on his face.  He was cheeful to the end.  We miss you buddy.  The house seems so strange without a dog to trip over.

That was then....

And this is now!

Chance turned 5 years old today!  I can't say he's lost his baby fat because, cheeks aside, he never had any.  I can say that he is growing - most of his clothes are too short and I actually think that I looked at him yesterday and DIDN'T see his ribs.

In fact, big news of the week - after weighing in at a solid 33 pounds, we told him that he could get a new carseat.  "When can I sit in a seat with a cup holder?" is the constant lament I hear from the back.

Always up to something, this guy. It's written all over his face.

Handsome devil.

Morning face.

And he's doing awesome at his gymnastics class.  Every morning he asks, "Is it gymastics class today?"

And in case you are wondering, he's wearing a Power Ranger costume - no relation to his gymnastics class. 

Shaeleigh asked him what he wanted for his birthday. He said, "No crafts. I don't like crafts. Only you and YiLin like crafts. I like toys." 

But sometimes crafts are like toys.

Mickey Mouse

Happy Birthday Chancie Pants!  We love you.

All the China, China, China around here has caused poor Chance to comment, "Vietnam isn't cool like China." 

It started when we had been looking at the photos from China and there were some photos of these circus performers.  He wanted to be assured that Vietnam had circuses too.  We took out the photos from our adoption trip to Vietnam and I pointed out the water puppet show.  Water puppets don't rank against people doing handstands on chairs.  Luckily we had lots and lots of photos of the motorcycles in Vietnam and the country was able to redeem itself a bit.

Over the weekend we went to the mall where they were having a big Chinese New Year's celebration.  He asks, "Is this Vietnam?"  Hahaha.  No. 

So last night we got Vietnamese food in celebration of Tet (Vietnam's Lunar New Year celebration).  But of course Chance mostly lives on air so when we asked if he liked it, no one was surprised when he said, "no."  Shaeleigh ate three plates of rice and a lemon slice (declared it delicious).  Chance got mad that Shaeleigh got the Vietnamese lemon.  And YiLin, of course, enjoyed it all, including the spicy chicken which he ate with one hand waving in front of his mouth and twelve glasses of water but he kept on eating it anyway.  "Hao chi.  Hao chi"  (good food, good food). 

Lion Dance at the mall.

Chance the fashion model.

The boys watching the show.  They enjoyed it.  Watched the different dance acts for over an hour. 

Sadly, church is not nearly as entertaining for them.  I would like to recommend a few dance numbers during mass to keep the kids' behavior in check but suspect I'll have trouble selling that to some folks.  Last Sunday we had our first complete church disaster ("put your coats on, we're leaving").  I thought my head was going to explode.  But what can you do?  We left half way through.  I brought them back home.  Everyone took an hour to collect themselves and then I brought them all back for the 10:30 mass and everyone did much better.  I'd like to say they learned something but why fool myself.

But on to better moments....  

The cousins gave Shaeleigh a Shrinky Dink oven for her birthday. And so we've been Shrinking a lot of Dinks.

We had to supplement the official Shrinky Dink oven with the toaster oven due to the abundance of master pieces. The boys loved to watch them curl up and shrink. They don't give quite as much love and care to the coloring and creating part but when it's time to curl and shrink there's not an empty stool in the house.

Someone at work gave the boys these most excellent Power Ranger outfits. Hahaha. 

And finally, if you are free on Sunday or Wednesday, you may be interested in joining in Shaeleigh's new "Merstery Club."

If nothing else, you should come to the "scils lab" (skills lab)

I look forward to learning about #6 myself.  Fun times indeed.

But Dictator Shaeleigh is not without her rules.

We all attended her first meeting on Sunday and we did a pretty good job of following her rules. She had us go on a treasure hunt in the backyard. She had hidden five scrolls (tied up with red ribbon) and follow the clues from scroll to scroll. We did well until the final scroll as once we found it, she disappeared. We figured we shouldn't open it without her there so we waited a bit and then went inside to find her. Unfortunately, once we did open it, we discovered it said, "Wait outside until I get the surprise ready."  Oops. Guess we didn't, "wait wail I explen the rules of what I am doing." 

But, luckily she was also finished getting ready with the surprise - a dance party in the family room - and a good time was had by all.

So I'm out of pictures but I'll add some news. 

YiLin is still enjoying going to school everyday.  We were invited to attend an assessment session with about 6 different teachers and specialists. They mostly reported that he is a happy kid, who loves to be "helpful" and enjoys following the other kids. He is now taking ELL (early language learners) 2 hours a day.  He is definitely understanding more English (get dressed, your shoes are on the wrong feet, etc) but still only says a handful of words. He has added, "ice cream" which proved that he is indeed a Smith.  The school is keeping him in 1st grade and we are scheduled to all meet again in March sometime.

I've returned back to work and have successfully mastered the triple drop-off (three kids, three schools).  Kenn is managing the triple pick-up.  We've only completely messed up one day.  We had a small bit of ice and were wondering why Shaeleigh had a 2 hour delay but the public school didn't have a closure listed.  So I go to drop YiLin off at the usual time only to discover that they had a teacher work day.  The school calendar had listed it something like, "optional floating student holiday," so I guess that didn't register as, "day off."  What if I don't want to take the option?  As much as we complain about the 30 phone calls, letters and emails we get from Shaeleigh's school about every little thing, I have come to appreciate the communication.  

Cheers!