T-ball Jamboree

This morning was the 2008 Mt. Pleasant Recreation T-ball and Machine Pitch Jamboree. 86 teams of 5-8 year olds assembled on the field for the start of the summer season. It's James' first foray into the world of organized team sports, and I have to say that he's taking to it pretty well! He's on a team sponsored by a HVAC company called Endless Air, and they have purple hats & jerseys. When they tried to come up with a team name, two boys suggested "Dragons", and someone suggested "Purple People Eaters", so they compromised: "Purple Dragons". It's been a blast seeing them get out there and play.

After the opening ceremonies (invocation, national anthem, ceremonial first pitches for each league), each team played a 1 inning exhibition game. In this t-ball league, an inning consists of every player on each team getting a chance to bat. The Purple Dragons were the home team today, so they started in the field. James played left field, which in his case meant lining up just inside the *inside edge* of the infield grass (on a regulation size diamond), between short and 3rd. He made a couple of nice plays - one stop that came to him and one play backing up the third baseman (basewoman/baseperson) Briana (yup - it's a co-ed t-ball league).

When it came time for James' team to bat, they headed to the plate alphabetically, which put James in the cleanup spot today. He had a nice cut and got an infield single (helped, of course, by some stellar fielding by the 4 and 5 year olds on the other team!). When he reached first (after starting out by running straight toward the pitcher's mound), the pitcher from the other team, who was a classmate of James' this year, walked over and said "hey James Chalmers - nice hit". James, of course, responded with, "Thanks Marshall, nice play". It's all about sportsmanship these days!


I had a blast watching, doing a little coaching, and taking some pictures.

First 24 hours at home

We've been home about 24 hours now, and I'd like to tell you that we're settling in, but that wouldn't be entirely accurate. It's certainly been interesting. We came home about 12:00 yesterday with three little boys and three grandparents (Lorrie's mom and my parents), and it was the first time James & Ryan had seen my parents since March.

I have a new theory about the energy level in a house when grandparents are present. You know that when a grandparent shows up, the energy level rises, and appropriately so. The catch is that the presence of each additional grandparent increases that energy level exponentially. Our house was running about 8x our normal energy level over lunch yesterday, and it took a toll on everyone. We even forgot to give my dad his father's day present before he left (Dad, we'll catch you on the way back or ship it to you!).

Last night was pretty tough. Andrew ate well, but he didn't sleep very much; I took the brunt of that and was up until about 3:30 or so with him, changing a few diapers, burping him, bringing him to Lorrie so he could eat. He finally drifted off sometime after 4:00, after Lorrie fed him that time. Today has been a different story so far; he is still eating well, and he's slept a lot, too. It's given me a chance to spend some good time with Ryan (while James was at camp). This afternoon, I think James and I are going down to the field to practice a little t-ball.

I promise I'll post some more pictures soon.

Eating, sleeping, changing diapers, and doing it all over again

Today has been a great day. Lorrie actually got about 6 hours of sleep last night, but the "daddy chair" I had was pretty miserable. It was a recliner, but it didn't actually get horizontal, and I literally almost slid off onto the floor a couple of times. Andrew spent a few hours in the nursery so we could get some sleep, but he ate well when the nurse brought him in. He lost 4 oz, down to 7 lbs 3 oz, but that's definitely to be expected. He'll probably lose a little more this week, but with the way he is nursing, I expect him to bounce back pretty quickly.

About 8:00 this morning, the nurse came in to take Andrew to see his doctor. It was a fairly traumatic morning for him, and he slept most of the morning away. After lunch, I went home for a few hours to try to get some sleep while Ryan took his nap and James played at a friend's house. About 5pm, James, Ryan, and I came back to the hospital so that the boys could spend some time with their little brother.

Gia, James, Ryan, and I had some Mama Fu's for dinner, and then Gia took the boys back to the house while I came back to the hospital to wait for Nana and Pop. They arrived about 8:30 and got to spend a little over an hour with their new grandson. They both got to hold him for a while and then left for their hotel about 10pm. Lorrie's feeding Andrew now, and then we're all going to try to get some sleep.

What a day! Andrew arrived just before 9am this morning (8:58 to be exact), after a very short labor for Lorrie. Both mom and baby are doing well, and I actually made it to the polls to vote when I left to pick up lunch (they were napping). We've taken a bunch of pictures, so I'll try to post some later this afternoon.

Headed to the hospital

I guess it's fitting for the first post: Lorrie and I just got settled into the labor & delivery room at East Cooper Regional Medical Center. Lorrie has her IV, and Dr. Osborne has been by to say hello. It's going to be a busy day for him - we checked in with two other couples before 6:30am. We'll try to update a few times before the baby comes, but we'll see how it goes.