Happy Father’s Day to my father and all fathers out there! I’m also taking this moment to welcome our daughter, Emme Elizabeth Moon, to the family – born 17 June at 1:25 PM, weighing in at 8 lbs 15 oz and measuring 20 inches in length (on the same day the Red Sox and Fenway Park celebrated its 500th consecutive sellout with a win). Life is grand!
The Red Sox are off to a slow start – in fact, their worst start since 1996 at 3-6 – but there is little reason to push the panic button just yet barely two weeks into the season. Old-timer Tim Wakefield gave us reason to believe this afternoon against Oakland with a complete-game victory against the Athletics in which he went seven-plus innings before yielding a hit. This was coming less than a day after the Sox not only lost in 12 innings but also lost Daisuke Matsuzaka due to “arm fatigue” after just one inning of work in his start. So the Sox get an off-day tomorrow (Thursday) before starting a nine-game home stand Friday, where we hope to see them pull back to .500 before going back on the road.
Baseball also begins soon for Jakob, who we signed up for T-ball. He collects his uniform this weekend and practices start in May. Jeff has signed up as an assistant coach and, having dealt with his softball team for the past three seasons, should be ready to handle five and six year olds (or so we hope!).
In other news, the baby’s due date is exactly nine weeks from tomorrow (18 June)! Tiffany is more than ready to have the baby now but realizes that waiting another couple months will be worth it. We visited our friend Alex the other week who just had her first this past winter and the kids seemed taken by her, so we hope that will translate to having one around all the time very soon.
Happy Tax Day?
Twice in the past week we’ve had major snow melts. Late last week we saw several large mounds nearly disappear, but then we got socked with another foot of snow Monday, only to see it nearly disappear again over the past two days with temperatures close to 60°F. That should mean that spring is getting close; in fact, tonight is when we are suppose to set our clocks ahead one hour for Daylight Savings Time. It seems strange to be doing it so soon – didn’t it use to be the last weekend in April? – but I’d rather be enjoying more daylight late, even if it means going to work a few weeks in near-darkness.
So what’s happened since our last post – wow, that was in mid-December? Well, for one, I had arthroscopic surgery on my right knee to clear out some “floaters” that had been making it damn-near uncomfortable for the better part of six months. It only seems to have been a temporary fix, however; I’m still having some issues with it so I may need surgery again. We’ll see – only time will tell.
Jakob and Lea are still enjoying school. Jakob has caught up with his classmates, which is good news for him because it means that he’ll be heading to first grade this fall. We also have him signed up for Little League this spring; that should be fun and I’ve signed up to volunteer as a coach. Lea also tested for pre-K in the local public schools and easily passed, so she should be where Jake is this year, though he’ll be going to another school next year. That means, of course, that we’ll need to figure out how to get them both to school on time.
The big news is that we are expecting number three in June! Tiffany is finishing her second trimester and all appears to be well. According to the ultrasound, it will be a little girl, which means that Jake and I will be grossly outnumbered in this house (even our two cats are female). The kids are very excited to meet their new baby sister; both of them are also claiming to have babies in their bellies like Mommy so we’re playing along with it.
Finally, Opening Day is less than a month away now (06 April) and this year the Red Sox actually open at Fenway Park, which is a little unusual. According to Baseball-Reference.com, the Sox have not opened at home since 2002, when they lost 12-11 to Toronto, and the last one before that was in 1995 against Minnesota, though that opener, due to the 1994 baseball strike, came on 26 April. I plan to attend at least another half-dozen games this season, which should be a fun one. The Sox came within one game of the World Series last year with nearly the same team so they should be contenders again this season.
See you in another few months! … or sooner… or later… ha!