[Backyard Sports] With My Son

With the summer weather in full blast (until I wake up at 5am for work and there's frost on the ground), the Dekearoon and I have been outside playing any sport you can imagine. Not that we really stop for the winter, which you will see in the pictures of the boy with a heavy coat on his back and a basketball in his hands, but the spring and summer is when we really get into our groove.

I wasn't lying.

Before we go any further, please be forewarned that this post will include a multitude of pictures. I love showing off pictures of my cute little dude. It's my thing. Live with it. That said, let's move on.

With a picture!

The miniature and I went down to the cafeteria of my old high school on a Saturday morning a few weeks back to sign up for the fall soccer club sponsored by AYSO. It will be his first organized sport and while I'm very excited about it and confident that he'll do just fine it still worries me sick. I just don't want him to mess up and feel bad about it. The look on his little face would break my heart. Of course I understand that it's a learning experience and that's the kind of thing that helps a kid grow, but he's still my baby, darn it.

I mean come on, look at those baby blues!

Enough with the fatherly worrying. We play soccer all the time out behind the house and it's generally our outside playtime starting point. From there we transition flawlessly into basketball with Deacon dunking like Air Jordan and Daddy shooting the three pointers from alllllll the way down town.

He even sticks out his tongue. Not pictured, sadly.

I'm a baseball guy and I was very glad to find that he picked up on it like he was a seasoned pro. I was even more excited when he decided that he felt more comfortable batting left-handed instead of on the right side of the plate, since that's just like Daddy. He liked hearing that too. Kid's got a heck of an arm on him (right arm, sadly) and he tosses it right to me, accurately, even from a decent distance away. When he first started doing that (before his 3rd birthday at that!) I was on cloud nine. It was honestly shocking to me that he could throw a ball that far.

HA! HA! HA! HA! I'm so clever.

Pictured: Future superstar. His words, not mine. Cocky brat.


That tee has gone further than the ball in the past.

We don't play football a lot, which makes the wife very happy. We do occasionally toss the ball around and he likes to play what my friends and I used to call "kill the carrier". There was an awesome pool version too, which involved dunking heads under the water and occasionally losing somebody right over the edge of our above-ground pool. Those tales can be told at a different time in a different blog.

We used this picture as part of a birthday present for my father last year. I swear I saw a tear.

Frisbee is one that needs work. We've played it before, but he's a bit afraid of the flying disc hurdling towards him through the air, so he generally turns around and it hits him in the back of the leg. My wife and I are going to have to come up with a plan to get his mind off the fear and back in the game. He throws it pretty darn well though.

I don't have too many bruises from errant throws.

The area he really needs to work on overall is the catching part of sports. He can throw a baseball, toss a football, fling a frisbee and put up a decent jump shot (that does need some work) but if he finds himself on the receiving end of a projectile he acts like he's the dodgeball team captain. His hand-eye coordination has certainly improved and he can catch a ball that's tossed to him, but if it isn't right into his hands he's not likely to make a reception. Kid's got no range.

Not even a fraction of the collection we've built.

Outside playtime with my Dekey is always a blast. Sweat flies, faces turn red, breathing gets heavy and baseballs hit Daddy in uncomfortable places.* I can't think of a better way to spend an afternoon with my son than seeing him laughing as I chase soccer balls around the yard and feign being faked out before he slams his basketball so hard that the whole set up falls on top of him.

I really, really, REALLY love being a daddy.


*Yeah, yeah. It's a wiffle ball. A hard one though. Look at the pictures! No holes to slow it down!


- Nicholas A. Marsico

[Crashing Cars] With My Son

Deke and I have spent countless hours "playing toys" as he likes to put it. When he was younger, the little guy was absolutely obsessed with making sure all of his trucks and cars and helicopters and airplanes and motorcycles and spaceships and bicycles and boats and hovercars and unicycles and hot air balloons and wheelchairs and rickshaws and -- you get the point. He has a lot of toys.

His first toy, my sentimental favourite (I'll take a picture of the real thing later).

To finish the above sentence, he was obsessed with lining up all of his vehicles single file or side-by-side in as symmetrical a fashion as he could. I didn't help matters when I taught him to sort them by color and vehicle type. It was an obsessive compulsive dream, and he did NOT like when somebody moved a toy even the slightest bit. We have since moved past that phase, and now we play out entire scenarios and stories involving multiple cars and trucks, different people, places, activities and the like. I think the best one was what he started doing shortly after he had his first Slurpee. He would have his imaginary man jump in the car and take a nice drive over to 7-Eleven to order one Slurpee. There would be a pause and he would ask if I wanted one too, and I always said yes, and he would order one for me as well. He paid the cashier, got in his car and drove on home to deliver the cold and slushy joy.

We also had the obligatory races around the room, cops chasing the bad guys and rocket ship launches. Sometimes, however, we throw all of that stuff out the window and stop messing around. This is the time for destruction. Most toy cars survive the perilous onslaught of mischievous might, but sometimes a plastic truck that is more susceptible to the hazards of head-on collisions winds up scattered throughout the room.

Understatement.

It's not just mindless thuggery, though. We destroyed a truck that I happened to really enjoy, but upon seeing its insides an idea hit me. Let's turn this into an educational experience! It was one of those cars that you can pull backwards to essentially wind up before letting go and watching it move on its own, so the little gears and gadgets that made that magic happen became a lesson in simple mechanics. We're working on setting up a day worth of mechanical experiments to explore as well, with this example being the starting point that refreshes his memory on the subject. Such is the wonder of homeschooling. Frivolous toy slaughter morphs into a science lesson in the blink of an eye. Or the snap of an axle. However you prefer to word it.

- Nicholas A. Marsico

[Alphabet Games] With My Son

During an excursion to the big mall this past Saturday to see Hop, I brought my little family to Barnes & Noble for our customary last stop before plopping in front of the big screen. There seems to be something new and interesting every time we set foot inside any B&N (though I could do without the person badgering everybody about the Nook the second they walk over the threshold), and this time was no different.

This is the only thing I ever think of when I see the B&N Nook.

This time around my wife came upon a very cute-looking game called "Alphabet Squiggle". We were all very excited to play it when we got home -- Deacon even exclaimed that he would rather just skip the movie and try out his new game. We may have obliged him if we hadn't already paid in excess of $3 million for the tickets. Let's move on lest I begin a rant on the ridiculous price of movie tickets.

Deke is no slouch in the alphabet department. We've already covered the fact that he knows his numbers, but his ability to recite the alphabet and recognize any letter we show him is quite impressive. He's not perfect with handwriting (who can expect him to be... he's not even 5 yet), and this game has thus far been a very fun way of helping the process along. The basic idea is that you roll a die (like in the vast majority of the board games we all know and love) and move the amount of spaces that correspond with your roll. When you land on your space, you must write the letter and then get creative. There are two routes: write a word that starts with that letter or turn the letter into a picture. That's how we play.

Not bad, but my drawing scored more points.

If your drawing starts with the same letter as the one you landed on and wrote down you get to move two spaces ahead on the game board. Deke's drawing got him one extra space while mine garnered two:

This one was definitely deserving of the pat on the back I gave myself.

I foresee this game helping him a significant amount as he pushes further ahead in his journey to learn how to read. I think my favourite part of this particular outing was when he not only correctly identified "F" but also decided to let me know it made the "ffffffffffff" sound, and he did that without prompting. I was very proud.


- Nicholas A. Marsico


Other Sources:
Games That Help Kids Learn the Alphabet
Alphabet Games

[Making Smoothies] With My Son

It's not easy to eat healthy and stay in shape. When you're busy and stressed you end up without time and tired. One tactic I used when I embarked on my original weight loss program was blending up a bunch of fruit with ice, yogurt and milk or orange juice. These smoothies became a very good meal enhancer, for lack of a better term, as they curbed my appetite enough to help me eat smaller meals while filling me with energy and nutrients that helped me exercise harder.

When Deke saw a short feature about making smoothies on Nick Jr he decided that this would be his newest favourite treat. Fine with me. Delicious? Check. Nutritious? Check. Fun to make with a possibility of a large mess? Check mate.

As long as it's him and not me.

I have given Deacon free rein to use whatever ingredients (within reason) that he wants. Some concoctions:

-- Blueberry Blueberry Blueberry Blueberry Blueberry Vanilla
-- Banana Pineapple*
-- Blackberry Pineapple Orange Juice
-- Chocolate Chip Strawberry Pineapple

I'll be honest, the last one was my fault. I made a joke to my wife that Dekester overheard and he decided that chocolate chips would tie the whole smoothie together. It wasn't bad, either.

Right now Dekey tends to enjoy the smoothies as a fun treat rather than a healthy meal, but we love choosing the ingredients together and discussing what the combinations may taste like. He also enjoys learning different things about the fruits (the interesting core of a pineapple, the seeds on the outside of a strawberry, why some cherries have pits and some don't, etc). I've mentioned in the past that my wife and I are homeschooling Deke. One of the great things about homeschooling is that any activity can become a lesson (in fact by now most activities carry some educational merit) and it makes him want to learn.

What's more interesting? Poorly cutting out a traced strawberry-like shape and pasting weird looking dots that are supposed to be seeds or cutting through a big, juicy strawberry and studying the colors and putting different parts under a microscope?


- Nicholas A. Marsico

* It was more like banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana pineapple

Other sources:
MyPyramid.gov - Inside the Pyramid

[Playing Cards] With My Son

My wife has begun to prepare Deacon and I for our trip down to Florida this summer to see her grandparents. Grandpa Don and Grandma Helene (who continually spells my name "Nickolas") LOVE playing cards. Card games are something of a big deal in my wife's family. They love to play Hand and Foot, all versions of Euchre (pronounced like my favourite baseball announcer of all time), Spades, Rummy and Gin among what I am sure are countless others.

I know how to play War.

The Deker knows his numbers. He has been able to identify numbers all the way up to 20, without hesitation, since before he was four (he's going to be five in July). I really don't know why it didn't dawn on me sooner that the boy would be a fan of playing with a set of 52 shiny, slick, sleek flash cards. He certainly has enjoyed making me play 52-card pickup in the past, though. Full of mischief, this kid.

I should have taken the time to photoshop Deke's face onto this image.

I know how to play War, Go Fish and Crazy Eights. Deacon has taken to these games as though he's been playing them for his whole life. Mallory (I assume I should probably reference my wife by her name eventually) taught him the different suits, I gave him a bootcamp on the values of Jack, Queen, King and Ace in relation to each other. He has no problem telling me that his Queen beats my 7 when we play War and he doesn't hesitate when he has no 5s in Crazy Eights -- he just grabs one of his diamond suited cards and tosses it onto the growing pile. A few nights ago I taught him to dramatically toss his card onto the pile while saying "BLAH-DOW!" to emphasize that he was a superior being in the realm of Crazy Eights.

I still won that hand, though.

As Deacon continues to grow older (much to mine and my wife's chagrin), we are able to enjoy more complex and involved games and activities. He can help write "Thank You" letters to people who send us cards for Christmas or birthdays and he can play Guess Who without having to be guided along by a partner.

He can also hold a legitimate phone conversation, which is fantastic when I haven't been able to see him for more than 36 hours because I'm at work and school. It helps us miss each other a lot less when we can both understand what the other is saying.

It also allows him to tell me that I forgot to get something that I promised I would bring home. Maybe I don't love the fact that we can fully understand each other. He's like... a real person with memories and emotions.

- Nicholas A. Marsico

Other Sources:

How To Promote Learning By Playing Card Games

[Going Gluten Free] With My Son

After months of pain that had steadily worsened, my wife finally convinced me to visit my doctor. Visits to 3 other doctors followed, but the headaches and stomach pains remained. And they still remain, but at least now I have some ideas as to why.

Celiac Disease disallows those diagnosed to eat any food containing gluten or wheat. Lactose intolerance is less severe but possibly more annoying, especially considering my undying love for ice cream.

I couldn't choose how to depict ice cream. This is it. Enjoy.

You can study up on any of these subjects later. You can also just simply go have some ice cream and taunt me about it next time you see me. Whatever you prefer is fine with me. What you choose to do won't be nearly as thoughtful, sweet, respectable or especially admirable as what Deacon has done. When my wife and I told him that I could no longer eat anything with wheat or gluten, he asked if there was anything he could do to help his daddy. There certainly was -- if he wanted to be able to give his daddy a kiss, he would have to join us in saying goodbye to regular bread, cookies, crackers (no more Cheez-Its or Goldfish, most specifically) and pretty much any processed food that can be picked up at the local grocery store. Mommy promised to make snacks just like these for him, and he readily agreed to do whatever he needed to do in order to make sure I would be just fine.

One reaction Deke seemed to experience when I first started admitting that there was something wrong with me was sympathy pain. His belly hurt, he was having uncomfortable... moments, and he even complained about headaches. His symptoms mirrored mine but have since subsided and he's doing just fine, so don't worry. My favourite Deke response to this new development in our lives is how he has been very careful to make sure that what he is eating is Gluten Free.

"Oooh, you made steak! Can you cut some up for-- hey, is this gluten free?"

And he does that for almost everything.

At Shoprite the other day we were searching for some of the many different flours needed to produce gluten free breads and pastas, and Deacon walks up to me with a box in his hand.

Always thinking of his daddy!

We weren't in a gluten free aisle nor were we in a section in which all of those products were grouped together. The one he grabbed and offered to me was on the shelf next to the rest of the run-of-the-mill cookie mixes.

It's not going to be an easy -- or cheap -- transition, but the support of my family is going to keep my spirits up and make my life a whole lot less stressful. And I love them for it. I really don't think they realize how much.


- Nicholas A. Marsico

Other Sources:
Celiac Disease (Celiac.com)
Gluten Free Registry
Celiac Disease (NDDIC)

[Cache In, Trash Out] With My Son

This past Saturday could not have been a more perfect day for the first Geocache of the year. My wife, son and I set out to find three hidden treasures. We only found one, which was located less than 50 feet from where we parked in the parking lot of the... park. At least it wasn't in Park Ridge.

It would have been funny, though.

Will a picture of the very cute trinket we got from the cache make you forget the "joke"?

Maybe not. Anyway...

The big positive that came from this foray was that we participated in the very eco-friendly (and quite frankly, just right) initiative aptly entitled "Cache In, Trash Out". CITO encourages Geocachers around the world to make the beautiful locations even more aesthetically pleasing while at the same time making a difference.

Pictured: Two kids not nearly as cute as me. *

Deacon ended up being more excited to clean up the woods than continuing our hunt for the elusive 2nd cache of the day, which my wife was absolutely elated about. He even offered his coat hood when we expressed disappointment that we hadn't brought any garbage bags along. That's my boy. I really think we're raising him right.

Next time we go out the three of us intend to make a day of CITO. I hope some of you check out the links and get involved, too.

- Nicholas A. Marsico

* Not nearly as cute as my son, I mean. Really. I am cute, though, right?

Right?


Other sources:
CITO Event Calendar
GAGB >> Cache In Trash Out
The New Geocaching Mantra of Eco-Resorts
Cache In, Trash Out: Geocache Rules for Everyone