Giants and Monkeys and Bears...oh, my!

Oh, so many other things, really. I have things I meant to blog about...weeks ago. But I dunno. Things have been getting away with me fairly often lately. I forgot about the appointment to get the kids' flu shots last week. Totally forgot until the next day. Ugh. I suspect it's a sure sign that, once again, I'm in over my head. Soccer, speech, soccer, chess, Daisies, soccer, soccer, soccer, rest, repeat. Forget the volunteering at school. And totally forget working...that doesn't even make it onto the calendar.

I helped put together a teddy bear factory for the first graders a week or so ago. I'd neglected to tell Mam that I was helping out with her class that day. She was ridiculously thrilled to see me.It's such a cute little event...very much like Build-A-Bear at the mall, but in our multipurpose room...and Mam loves her new bear, who she named Corduroy.

Meanwhile, the kids are still playing soccer weekly. Mam seems to have regained last year's form in large part.Although the other girls are much, much better than the girls were at this time last year, she's back to being her feisty ol' self, scoring goals, hugging her teammates and squealing like...well...an Orange Super Monkey.And, really I just mention that because it made for a cute title.

Daddy had a birthday.I made another yummy cake...same one as last year and the year before. With all the balls I've got in the air, it was hard to shop for fun birthday gifts. I ended up purchasing Jon Stewart's new book, Earth - A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race, which came out on Daddy's birthday, so didn't arrive 'til the next day. Funny book, but I had to have Daddy take it directly to work. Definitely not kid appropriate! Still, it was more exciting than the couple of shirts I'd bought him.

Any of you who have been reading my blog for awhile probably know that I'm a barely closeted baseball fanatic. A couple of weeks ago, I got a phone call during the day...for Smunch. Turns out it was a store where we went last year so Smunch could meet Pablo Sandoval and get an autograph. They just wanted to let him know that they'd lined up a new signing event with both the Panda and Aubrey Huff...one of the Giants' most popular new players this year.

I spend a lot of time at home alone these days. So you can imagine how delighted I was to find a baseball fan on the other end of my phone. Not only someone to talk to, but someone to talk baseball to. He almost talked me into going to meet Will Clark...one of my own baseball heroes. But we had a wedding to go to and I finally let that one go. But I quickly signed Smunch up to go meet Aubrey Huff. So, Thursday, Daddy came home early and I picked the kids up from school and drove them directly to the train station. This signing was at AT&T Park, rather than "a nearby city". Smunch (mostly) happily did his homework on the way there.We got there about half an hour before the signing was set to start. The daytime game had just ended. The team won. The postgame show was being taped right in front of the park, so we got to see some TV personalities, including Rich Aurilia, who just retired from the team last year.The fog was rolling in. How long have a lived here now? Why didn't I bring sweaters for everyone? I know better than to go to The City without sweaters. No matter. The Giants Dugout store was right there, not 50 feet from where we stood in line. Daddy went and bought a blanket.And the shivery wait was worth it when both Aubrey Huff, aka Huff Daddy, and Pablo "The Panda" Sandoval walked out and sat down to sign autographs.I even had a funny little conversation with Mr. Huff...starting with telling him how much fun it's been watching him have fun playing and ending with him picking on his teammate down the table for swinging at too many bad pitches. Of course, the Panda hit one out of the park that afternoon, so I'd say they were equally well loved that night!

Bear factory

About a week and a half ago, I had my first opportunity to go to Smunch's school and volunteer with his first grade class. I love doing this. Smunch's little face lights up the moment he sees me and that might be worth it all by itself, but I also love getting to know the other kids. I like knowing what kind of people and what kind of students his friends are. To date, he seems to like the quieter, brighter boys the best. I'm fine with that. There are plenty of troublemakers in his class. Some of them would be fine as friends too. Others, I'd rather he didn't want to hang out with. But so far, I like his taste in other kids, so that makes me feel good about how he's doing. Unlike that first week, he's happy at school now. He likes his teacher. He's made a new friend or two.

But I digress.

Last week, the first grade (all four classes) finished up their unit on bears by turning the multi-purpose room into a teddy bear factory. They stuffed their own bears.Then, at the next station, they picked out a "wishing star", put it inside the bear and sealed it up via zipper and velcro. Then they had the "wish fairy" (a first grade teacher who retired last year) solidify that wish.Each student had their picture taken with their new bear, had it blow dried (supposedly to make it fluffier, although I couldn't tell the difference), choose a bow for the neck or the head and pick a name, which I wrote in my best calligraphic handwriting on a birth certificate for them. Smunch named his bear Jeffrey, after his grandpa.

All the while, teddy-bear-themed music played.

Yes. It was sort of silly and had limited educational value. But the kids were so proud of their bears and so happy to be doing something fun that it was worth the silliness. Jeffrey is the only stuffed animal remaining in Smunch's room. At six and a half, he decided long ago that stuffed animals were the purview of girls and ceded all of his to Mam. It's nice to have a little speck of his younger life return, however temporarily.