He's a "Spirited" Kid!

    Gosh, where is this summer going?  I looked at my calendar and we're already halfway through July.  Oh the days of summer, please slow the heck down.  We spent much of our month of June at the ballfield.  Bennett loved every second of playing on the all-star team and Fletcher and I loved almost every second of coaching/team mom.  The latter part may not be entirely true as I've come to realize that I'm completely content having my path not cross that of certain characters that often frequent the baseball field.  Not to name names, but we had our dose of a crazy ball mom if you get my drift.  For every loon, there are 3x that in wonderful friends and families we've grown to know and love.  We ended the all-star season at the Wahoos game where the boys got to run out on the field with the professional players.  Pretty awesome experience for our boys and a great way to finish out the season.  Bennett has since gone from baseball to baking.  He's my little helper in the kitchen!

 

 

    Turning the page on baseball lead us right into the 4th of July!  We have the best of friends that we try and get together with whenever possible and it turns out the 4th of July was when it was possible.  Amen to that!  We loaded up the kids and headed for Lake Tuscaloosa.  The Blairs, The Rosses, and The Tidwells know how to have fun and the kids seem to have inherited that as well!  The kids go until the can't go anymore.  They tube, they ski, the swim, play baseball, dodgeball, paddle boat, and then they do it all over again.  The adults laugh, and eat, listen to great music, and laugh some more.  It's pretty wonderful to have people in your life that love and support you and you can return the favor!  We always leave our weekends with these special friends grateful for the time, but eager to see each other again sooner than later.

     One thing that seems to be a constant everywhere we go is our Beau.  It's pretty standard that he makes an entrance and an exit always.  We've come to define him as a "spirited" kid!  I find I spend a lot of my time trying to navigate the waters of Beau which is comedic, fulfilling, and challenging all in the same breath.  This week Beau has had an infection in his ear that came from first having swimmer's ear.  The doctor said that due to his high threshold for pain, when most kids would have stopped swimming because of severe pain, he continued on causing more infection.  She recommended 7 days of antibiotics and no swimming for a week.  We made it 5 days of antibiotics and 1.5 days out of water.  Great parenting, I know!  He's since recovered. :)  On day 2 of no swimming we made it out to Pensacola Beach to watch the Blue Angels dress rehearsal.  It was amazing to see and following doctor's orders (or not), we watched it from the beach/water. :/  For the record, I tried to keep him in the sand.....unsuccessfully.

 

     Beau also has his own fashion sense and it's very loud.  He loves  his giant flat-billed hat and his colored skinny jeans and alternates between the red and grey.  Trust me, I'm looking for additional colors to help with our options.  Monday I noticed specs of red material as I walked through the house.  When I got to the playroom, there was Beau with my kitchen sheers cutting holes in the knees of his favorite jeans.  He wanted them to "wook" better.  God bless this kid and our clothes budget!  Nevermind that it's 90+ plus outside and he's in holey jeans, a mock-turtleneck, and a gun-holster. 

   I've learned so much from my "spirited" child.  I've learned (and continue to learn) to appreciate how God made him.  I love that he really doesn't care if it's odd to wear a bandana around his neck and mouth into Target or whether people might think it's strange that he wants me to buy him a duster to wear to church.  He knows who he is and is completely fine watching old John Wayne movies while the other kids his age watch Disney Junior.  Sometimes I wish I were as comfortable with myself as my 5 year old is with himself.