Author: Dawn Kasal-Finley

If Only I Could Bottle It

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I don’t know where my kids get their energy from.  I get tired just watching them–hell, who am I kidding, I’m tired just thinking about it.  Case in point–Tuesday–Noah woke up at 7 am (which is actually sleeping in for him) went to camp from 9-12, went to Grant’s Farm, came home and played, rode his bike, went to gymnastics to 2 hours, came home rode his bike again, played soccer and wasn’t ready for bed until 9.

Seriously? His sister isn’t any better–seriously, she is worse; she can’t even sit still.  She must hop, jump, shake, etc.  Their bodies just do not stop moving.  They are in perpetual motion–ALL. THE.  TIME.  I just look at them and wish I had a small fraction of their energy and that I could bottle it.  Because I am pretty sure their energy is better than the rush you get from speed or any other stimulant.  I look at them and I wonder how…simply HOW.  And how am I supposed to keep up with them?  Seriously, they are exhausting.

Their energy level baffles me and boy I can only imagine what it would go for on the open market.

The Field of Dreams

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Yesterday, Noah had the immense pleasure of walking around the field at Busch Stadium.  It was Affton Athletics Day at the stadium and all the teams go to parade around the field.  Noah was so excited to get to be on the field and everyone waving to them and giving them high fives as they came around–What boy wouldn’t just eat that up?

Noah loves sports.  He loves competition and he loves getting better at something.  He likes to practice (I know right–I rarely have to encourage or remind him to practice).  He loved sharing this moment with his team and his dad.

Baseball (it’s really t-ball, but don’t call it that to an overly competitive 6-year-old) has been great for Noah.  He has grown so much since he started playing in May.  He works really hard at practice and is learning to be part of a team.  He is learning that not everyone is good and that’s okay.  He has learned that isn’t the best, but that he is good and that with work and practice he can be better. Sports are so good for that and I am excited that he really likes sports and activities and being part of something.

When asked what his favorite part was, he said–“Looking up and seeing you waving at me Mom.”

I have to say that was my favorite part too, because the smile on his face was so authentic and so happy–I’ll never forget it. A true baseball fan was born in that exact moment.

As if walking on the field wasn’t enough.  He got a shirt with one of his favorite players name on the back (Go Yadi!); he got to sit and watch the game with some of his teammates; he got to run the bases after the game.  It was an amazing day and my kids again surprised me–we left our house at 11 am and didn’t get home until a little after 6.  They lasted the entire baseball game and the ridiculously long line to run the bases.

Noah was certainly not the only Finley kid bitten by the baseball bug.  Zoë has proclaimed that she is playing baseball next year and was happy to run the bases–even in her frilly skirt.

She was also more than happy to pose.  Any time I tell her she looks cute–her first question is “Do you want to take pictures?”

Hindsight

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I am so wishing that I had thought to get my phone ready for a picture yesterday.

Noah had baseball practice last night and I haven’t really been able to go–I’m either out of town or at gymnastics with Zoë.  But gymnastics are done until next week and she’ll be going on Mondays.  So, as part of my lifestyle overhaul–clean eating, no soda, limited caffeine, limited dairy–I have committed to fitting exercise in and I want to fit it in with my family or as a normal part of my day.  I am away from my kids enough when I am at work, I don’t want to take away time I could spend with them to exercise.  I just can’t do it.  So, it’s been hard. When there are limited hours in the day, it is hard to find time.  I have tried getting up in the morning early–that doesn’t work.  I have tried after the kids  go to bed–that doesn’t work as I just want to relax.  So, I am trying to weave it into my regular days.  I will do a yoga class at lunch time and then just eat lunch at my desk (which I usually do anyway).  So, I’m trying–but I will admit only halfheartedly.

I asked my health coach to hold me accountable for exercising–I didn’t do everything I wanted to this two week period–but I did something and that is great.  I committed to doing the C25K program and hadn’t done any yet–so last night I went to Noah’s baseball practice with Zoë and her bike because there is a bike/running trail near his practice.  Zoë would rid her bike while I did the C25k program (walking for 1.5min and running for 1 min–alternating for 20 min).

It was going well–as well as it could since Zoë just got over her fear of riding her big girl bike.  She was in front of me and it was during one of the walking segments.  I was reminding her to stay to the right and so she started steering to the right, but turned her head to the left to watch some older girls do batting practice.  Before I knew it, I was sprinting (as fast as an out of shape, overweight 40-year-old can–seriously, I am sure it looked nothing like sprinting), as Zoë veered off the trail and into an huge overgrowth of bushes.  By the time her bike stopped falling she was completely engulfed in foliage.  She was crying–she was way more scared than she was hurt.  Not even a noticeable scratch of any significance.

After I pulled her out and got her back on her back, all I thought was “I can’t believe I didn’t get a picture.”  I know it wouldn’t have been a stellar parenting moment to take her photo before I hoisted her out of the imprisonment in the bush, but I so wish I would have.

She recovered and was able to finish riding her nearly 2 miles.  I’m sure I am more sore today than she is, considering I exercised more yesterday than I have in a while.

Today I felt the soreness and muscle fatigue on my bike ride to work.  Yep, I rode to work.  I didn’t realize how many bike commuters there are and I almost forgot how many up and downs there are in St. Louis.  This part of the Midwest certainly isn’t flat.

Envy

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

We just returned from a week of family fun in Orlando.  It was really great and we got to spend a lot of time together as a family–something that we don’t always get to do with how busy we generally tend to be.  It was nice to “unplug” from work (mostly) and just get to relax and hang out.  Our resort was awesome and really kid friendly–which when you have kids becomes really important.  We spent a great deal of time at the pool(s), a marathon day at Universal’s Islands of Adventure, an inspiring day at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium followed by an afternoon at the beach and a rainy, rainy day at Legoland.  Overall, it was an amazing and exhausting trip.

What I liked best about our trip was watching our kids so very effortlessly make friends each and every day we were at the pool.  It was amazing to watch.  It was also very cool.  Some of the kids were their age–but mostly they were slightly older (2-3 years older).  One boy that Noah befriended was so nice that he helped Noah when he couldn’t stand in the pool and listened when Noah said he didn’t want to go any farther.  It is moments like this at gives me hope that we aren’t totally screwed as a society.  It is hard to remember the innocence of childhood and the ability to just get along with others who are so very different from you, when the world seems to be filled with hate and the rhetoric of difference as opposed to the bonding over similarities.

I watched them with envy and wondered when it happens, that switch from open acceptance to quiet judgement.  When does it become more about what someone looks like and does than who someone might be?

I was so proud of my children and not just for being able to make friends so easily but for the choices they made of friends to play with at the pool.  There was certainly no shortage of kids there, but each time they chose kids who were good kids.  They chose kids that were polite, kind and not the kids who were being aggressive or mean to others.  It was so awesome to see.

They just live life and go for it.  I am so envious of them.  I wish we as adults could do the same–just see each other as people and not by our differences.

We can learn so much from our children.

We Totally Rock At This Parenting Thing

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Bill has an eclectic music collection.  The kids really enjoy music, so Bill spend a lot of time making music CD’s for the kids to listen to in the car.  The songs range for oldies (Splish/Splash) to contemporary (Lady Gaga) and lots of stuff in between.

Turns out that Bill doesn’t always pay a lot of attention to the lyrics in the songs he puts on the CD’s.

“So, I put a Nelly song on this one and it has a bad word in it.” Bill confesses.

“A bad word?”  I ask.  I like Nelly and have several songs in my playlists–I don’t remember a song that has one bad word.

“You mean the one where they say ‘think with your mind and not your penis?'” Noah asks from the back (he totally raps the lyric.

“There maybe a few songs that have some questionable lyrics.”  Bill smiles at me.

Yeah.  We totally rock at this parenting thing.