Little Ducks

My little boy is growing up. We had our first T-ball practice last night - first for him, and first for us as parents. Welcome to the world of sports. And guess what . . . all those kids who have come to us and asked us to buy a candy bar, coupon for buy 1, get 1 free hamburger, magazine, T-shirt, coupons, WHATEVER . . . now it's our turn to ASK! The very first night of practice - we received a nice little piece of paper with all the details of a fundraiser for the team! GROOVY!!! (Sarcasm!) I'd rather hand over the money and forget about the fundraiser. Come on! We just spent $30 for registration fee and then a lotta $$ for our own son's equipment, so now they want us to help raise money for the "team's equipment"? RIGHT!

Anyways . . . other than that . . . it was a lovely, cute . . . adorable . . . experience!!!!

It was frigid outside so I sat in the mini-van with Little L for the first part of practice and watched from afar, while my husband took a seat in the bleachers up close and personal. I watched what looked like a group of baby ducks chasing after the ball when it would get hit in the outfield -- scratch that -- I don't think it really went in the outfield. We are talking about 5 and 6 year olds. But it was the darndest, cutest thing I ever saw. I was laughing!!! Imagine 5 little boys chasing after this little white ball wherever it goes on the ground . . . oh, no, they didn't actually try to catch it. (Like it really went in the air - we didn't have pop-flies. This isn't the big leagues!) Then imagine one little boy just standing there while the others chase the ball. That would be OUR SON. He was the timid one. OR, as I would like to refer to him. . . . the smart one. I think he was like "Uh, why would I try to get the ball when there are 5 guys already trying to get it?" :-) But seriously, I watched my Big J in his element. OK, so he's timid when mixed with a bunch of strangers. He needs a bit of a warm-up time. As time went on, I saw him run . . . but he was not talking to the other boys . . . . he didn't mix as much with them as I would have liked. But that's ok. We've got all season long. I am glad we are doing this before he goes to Kindergarten. It will be good for him. And the main thing is that he came home last night super excited about the evening! He had a good time.

Oh, and one more thing. . . . he was next to last in line to take his turn at the bat. (So, he had many opportunities to see the kids do it right!) The coach gave him the orders . . . . . after you hit, put the bat down, and run to first base.

I thought maybe he would forget to put the bat down.

I was wrong.

He hit the ball . . . ran with all his might . . . . to THIRD base.

There's one in every bunch, right?