Modern Parenting

Travis, my sweet boy who never does anything wrong (ha!), upped my parenting game the other day. Tamila was babysitting him while I was at work and he was refusing to listen to her. Besides being his normal crazy self, the most aggregious thing he had done was to dump the toy basket all over the living room. And Travis, being Travis, refused to pick it up. Tamila called me out of desperation and I did my best to threaten him over the phone to no avail. So what's a mother to do? Write the threat down, make angry eyes and take a pic to send to him of course.

Did it work? You betcha! What's even more amazing is that he can't even read yet! (Which makes sense when you realize not all of my message made the pic.) I guess it was the new text threat format and the angry eyes that did it!

(And no, those aren't curlers on my head: that's just the Lighthouse sign behind me.)

--Laurel

Junkie

Hi. My name is Laurel and I'm an info junkie.

Whilst perusing my cell phone bill this morning I discovered an interesting statistic: I downloaded over 465,000 kilobytes of data on my iPhone last month. The closest person to me in our family of 6 was my dear daughter at 257,000+. What does that say about me? I'm a info junkie. Now that I have my personal stash of info crack with me everywhere I go, my brain is using it to feeds it insatsiable desire for knowledge. Thank goodness for unlimited data plans!

Now about my daughter: she's the big texter in the family with over a 1,000. (Paling in comparison I'm sure to some of her peers.) The talker? Billy with almost 600 minutes. That number used to be higher before texting became the language du jour. But this statistic shouldn't surprise anyone who knows him well. The man is known for talking so much at dinner that we're all on dessert by the time he just starts to eat his cold plate of food.

So there you have it. My name is Laurel and I'm the info junkie of the Baker household.

--Laurel

Why I love Baseball...

I love baseball. Not just for the nuances of the game, it's all American appeal, the friendships I've made or even the excuse to just sit and enjoy the sun. No...I love baseball because it's given me the chance to watch my boys grow.

Now, I know that one can watch their kids grow up on a daily basis. I get that. Baseball has forced me to sit on the sidelines, be still and see my boys grow not just physically, but socially and emotionally too. It gives me a window into their true selves (and my own sometimes...I've discovered I'm a little competitive. Who knew? haha!)

What brought about this declaration? I found some pictures of Austin's first year in baseball this morning while cleaning. It made me all sappy and teary eyed so I had to share a few...

Austin, 9 years old.

His first year catching.

Seen this move before.

Austin, 16 years.

Yesterday at HBHS.


I have more pics to share of all of them, but I'll spare you and take my time to publish them over time. :)

--Laurel

Competitive Camping

I set my alarm two months ahead knowing it was coming.

I practiced my skills to make sure I had what it took to get the job done.

I tested my equipment to make sure all the pieces and parts were in place and in working.

Daily I would check to see if all systems were go...and they were.

I could barely sleep last night because I was so excited about the day finally coming.

I woke up a minute before my alarm because my soul knew it was time...

It was time to get up and make my camping reservations for Yosemite!

Why all the prep and care you ask? The competition is brutal! They only open up one month windows of reservations, 4 months ahead of time on the 15th of every month, starting at 7am PDT. I signed in, found my site and started hitting refresh with a manic speed before the clock hit 7. Tap, tap, tap....my heart was pounding out of my chest in anticipation.

What did I get?

Nothing. A big fat zero.

All of the reservations were taken up in less than 2 minutes. 2 minutes! By the time I moved onto another campsite, the available options were all gone. My heart was in agony and my distressed cry woke up the whole house. Where did I go wrong? Cruel, cruel world! All I wanted to do was to get into Yosemite! AUGGGHHHH!


I accepted my defeat and crawled back into bed--saddened to the core. In between deep sighs and pondering my plan B a lightbulb went off in my head. I remember a little box on the reservation screen saying "All reservations will be held for 15 minutes until completion. If not complete...campsite will be lost."

Ding!

I glaced at my phone: 7:14. I had time to go cash in on someone else's failure to complete their site. Or at least to catch a castoff.

I dashed back to my computer, tapped furiously, refreshing a few times and Jackpot! I found a campsite! On the days I wanted even! WOO HOO!

Phew.

Now, I'm tired, but happy. I'm glad I got into one of the busiest, dense, crazy national parks out there. We will be literally elbow to elbow with our neighbors living in the dust fending off bears and mosquitoes. But we will also be literally elbow to elbow in what John Muir termed "Nature's Cathedral". And I wouldn't trade that reservation for the world.

--Laurel

Torture

I put carrots in Aaron's lunch today. Well, at least I started to. When Aaron saw the baggie with 5 baby carrots in it, his lips started to quiver and he let out a very unhappy squeal. (If you've ever heard it--it's definitely a squeal!) I was so frustrated--this battle over veggies has been going on for way too long. I finally had it and decided to do the unthinkable: I told him to eat a carrot or he couldn't go to school.

You would've thought I asked him to eat a raw onion! Just the thought of eating the carrot made him start to gag. Knowing he had no other choice, he pressed on and took a teeny bite of the carrot and chewed it quickly without tasting--tears welling up in his eyes the whole time. Gagging, he took another bite and did the same thing. However--he refused to swallow it. This kid, who can swallow pills without water chipmunked a whole chewed up baby carrot in his cheeks. Sternly, I repeated my mandate about school and he managed to choke it down. (This tactic wouldn't work for Travis by the way, he would've cheerfully chucked the carrot in the trash and called me on my bluff. He likes veggies so this wouldn't be a problem in the first place, thank goodness!)

So, back to the problem at hand.

What gives? This kid will drink V8 like there's no tomorrow, but refuses to actually eat a vegetable. He'll eat lettuce leaves without the dressing. He'll claim to love a veggie, take two bites and start getting nauseous on the third! I would love to say I won the battle by making him eat the carrot. But I know it will continue as long as he lives at home: 9 years of gagging and squealing down, 9 more years to go.

Let the veggies battles continue!

--Laurel

Breaking up is hard to do...

I don't know how to say this. We've had a relationship for my whole life. My heart would pound in anticipation of your ring. When I heard your bell I would come dashing, eager to hear the voice on the other end. Over the years sweet sounds of family and friends awaited me when I lifted that receiver to your landline. It was all good for a really, really long time.

Until...well, until cellphones came along. First it started with one cell phone. Now--we have 5 of them in the family and, well--you never ring anymore. The only time you ring is when an annoying telemarketer uses you for their evil purposes. Why do you let yourself get used like that? It breaks my heart! To top if off when you do ring--you mess up my internet cable modem for days. Home Phone--it's almost as if you knew what was coming and decided to make us pay.

I'm sorry, but you must go.

No, no, no...please don't cry! Really--it's not you. It's just us...we've moved on. So, you have one week left in our household. I know it will be awkward for all of us, but I'm sure we can deal with this like adults.

With my sincere regards,

Laurel

Family Tradition

I admit it. I have warped my children...they love watching the Oscar's Red Carpet on E. I am not ashamed.

Our family tradition started years ago when Austin and Tamila were mere babes. Billy would be off doing his Oscar gig and I was lonely--so what was I supposed to do? I popped popcorn, poured soda and watch the red carpet with my kids. We would watch the parade of stars and occasionally I would excitedly point out that Daddy was there somewhere amongst all the hub-bub. Fast forward several years and we still watch the red carpet together. Repeating this year after year has created an emotional connection with the Oscar's and excitement about being their Dad's kid. Too me that's awesome. Hopefully someday they'll watch the red carpet with their kids too.

So, to some, Hollywood maybe shallow--but to us, it's a connection with our family. Happy Oscar's everyone!

laurel

Kindergarten Don Juan

See this sweet innocent face? He's the face of the boy you want to keep your daughters away from. Particularly if they're blonde. Yikes! What did we get ourselves with child #4? In the past month he's announced that he has a girlfriend. (A blonde!) Kissed a girl. (A blonde!) Held hands secretively in the lobby of church with yet another girl. (A non-blonde for a change of pace. I guess.) Seriously, the boy is going to need a full time chaperone in highschool. Scratch that--the boy needs full time chaperoning now!

The older children are already grateful that they're going to be off to college and adulthood by the time he reaches highschool. They gloat about the fact that we'll be left alone with Don Juan and his trail of broken hearts. Maybe he'll calm down by then and decide that girls are a waste of time and academics are where it's at. Hmm.

I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.

Laurel

We're still kickin' it on ol'blue.

The Baker family has been slacking on the Blog as of late. Okay, fine...not as of late, but for almost 6 months. So I'm here to state that we're alive and well in HB! Baseball season has kicked in with all three boys playing. Tamila is busy leading her Flex small group and surviving the everyday dramas of Jr. High. Between the four of them I have plenty of blog fodder being created as we speak. So--this is a warning shot over your bow: watch out the Baker's are going to start posting again!

Oh,like the picture? Nasa released a new set of earth pictures this last week using a composite of satelite photos. The clarity and colors are insane! Here is the flipside in case you were curious:



Laurel