Eric, Kristin, Lucy, and Jamie: T-ball

Lucy is a little too young still for the organized games (soccer and basketball start at 5, t-ball at 4) but a woman I teach with who is an enthusiastic coach organized a month-long t-ball experience for her kids and others that she knows in town. It was 45 minutes of play with the most eclectic teams you could imagine, ranging from a 7-year-old who almost hit a pitch from Heidi out of the park, to Heidi's 2-year-old son Bryson who spent most of his time picking up rocks with Jamie and another little guy that had to be coaxed to 1st base.

When Heidi invited Lucy along, I asked if it was okay that she had no ball skills. I think part of this is that Eric and I are not ball sports people and don't practice with her (as in she had no glove to bring to the game and had to use the extra that was goopy and covered in bubble solution) but I also get the feeling that her teen talents will lie outside the ball sports realm. Can someone remind me of this in 10 years? When Eric and I had a discussion about what she might like as a high schooler. I thought she might stick with gymnastics (individual competition), he guessed basketball (more action) or swimming. I think swimming was such a positive experience for him that he's hoping she will eventually be a swimmer but judging by the "lesson" he gave her yesterday at the pool, I'm not sure. She really, really wants to swim, but the realities of her face in the water are just too much to take. He'd better go after Jamie for that one.

Lucy's at bat, being coached by Daddy who failed out of t-ball. Apparently his eyes were already so bad he couldn't hit the ball off the tee, and didn't have glasses yet. Lucy fared slightly better. Notice her gray top and gray sweatpants. She was desperate for a uniform (very big kid) and decided that the monochrome athletic-gray wardrobe was what the team Lucy should wear.

Base hit. Yes!

Sorry about the shaky camera on this one - you'll see that when the camera stops shaking Jamie runs over to the tee. It's hard to hold onto a wiggler and shoot steady video at the same time.

Lucy's first catch! Every time someone got a hit, all the kids in the field went racing toward the ball hoping to catch it. I think Lucy almost quit before she got a ball in her hands. She came by this one honestly, too. A couple of time she was so crestfallen at not getting to the ball first that Heidi tried to get whoever it was that had the ball to toss it to Lucy so she could throw it in. Not a chance in hell any of those kids were giving up the honor of throwing the ball back to Heidi. It took Lucy about 30 seconds of celebrating at 3rd base before she'd give the ball up either.

Jamie was working SO hard to act like the big kids. I could see him mimicking things he saw the whole time we were there. Not only did he follow Bryson around and pick up rocks, he also climbed the fence with Lucy.