The boys in my life

I was thinking the other day about how it seemed like only yesterday that I posted a childhood memory about strawberry picking with my folks. Of course that led to my own strawberry patch just below my deck. And it is riddled with red right now!

So far we have gotten 3 bowls of berries from the garden in the last 2 days! The kids, Pat and myself are savoring the sweet taste of the fresh strawberries! There is just nothing like them I tell ya.

Along with that comes sunburns, skinks, and the monarch butterfly. Yes, my little guy is already on the hunt and in the last three days has found 15 miniscule caterpillars! I can barely see them they're so small, like the size of the exclamation point I'm about to type! He keeps laughing at me because I cannot believe that he can find them on the many leaves of the milkweed plants that he carries them on.

Last year I thought his obsession had peaked, that he would be bored with the task but in fact he is determined to find over 170 caterpillars this summer. The kid never ceases to amaze me.

He has definately changed a little over the last few months. He's discovered sports and he is a sports nut! He'll get up at 6:00am and turn on whatever might be playing on the tube. Usually it's soccer but hockey is his real love. The Stanley Cup playoffs are on as I write this and him and Pat are in their glee.

It's truly amazing how quickly a boy of 7 can learn the terminology for sports practically overnight! It's like he woke up with new knowledge or something. For years Pat has been trying to get him interested in any sport and had nearly given up. Then over the winter he wanted to play 'dad's hockey game' on the playstation and that pretty much sewed up what has become the mens television time 24/7. Does it bother me??? Heck no, poor Pat has been surrounded by women, lifetime, and chick flicks for 16 years, the guy deserves a break.

The funniest thing about it though is the play by play the little guy does. If there is one thing our son would love to be it would have to be a goalie. If Pat isn't watching whatever sport our son is watching, the boy will run upstairs, do the splits, and practically yell how the puck hit the pipe or it went through the five hole and do every move frame by frame. It's truly a sight to see. There was actually a time there where we worried about him, that he was becoming too obsessed.

But it has been determined and decided that we would rather our son get himself into sports and something that is much more productive and healthy. Of course there are downfalls to this, we know but in the end, I'm glad to have a boy who loves nature as well as physical exertion.

The best part? Watching and listening to him and Pat go back and forth about the games. It's really music to my heart...