T-ball: rock piles and drawing in the dirt

Shea seems to be enjoying T-ball. They have settled into a good groove. He is by far NOT the worst player on the team. Or the best. Which is a nice safe place to be.

Baseball at this age group is pretty counter intuitive. Most of the play are sort of like this:

"Ok, stand there, swing! Run, run, run! Stop. Stay there. Pay attention. Stay there. Stay there. Run, run, run! Awwww....you're out."

All of the 5 years olds are playing with a good healthy dose of "huh?" running through it all. But, of course, there are plenty of (too many in fact) adults around to tell them what to do.

A favorite past time for the players is Rock Pile while waiting for someone to hit a ball to them. Sometimes Rock Pile can get so engrossing the ball whizzes right by them. They don't mind, really. "Just look at this excellent Rock Pile!" It is not considered that the rock pile will inevitably trip them or one of their team member up the next time around. And it does.

Another favorite is Dirt Doodle; could be letters or just random drawing. Hard to tell at times. This one gets engrossing too. Sometimes "beloved sticks" are included in this game. Until, of course, a ball is hit and whole swarm of adults start yelling. At least these don't trip up the players.

Despite us grown up idiots, they seem to be having fun. Thank god they are such good sports about us.

T-ball and my team sports anxiety

Well, it is official.

Shea is signed up for T-ball which is the precursor to baseball. The ball sits on the "T" hence "T-ball". Where the heck have I been?

I was never really a team sports kinda gal. Or any kind of sports kinda gal for that matter. And, Molly didn't really take to it either. We had one truly excruciating season trying soccer and both Molly and I decided, "Never again!" Something about the rain and cold, the running, the being kicked in the face with a ball. Those things add up.

So, she likes things like tennis, skating and gymnastics.

But, Shea is a completely different little animal. This kid was practically ready for sports on day one. For all his lack of mouth coordination, he makes up for with acute eye/hand coordinating and pin point accuracy throwing and kicking.

If there ever was a kid where sports may be a saving grace, it just may be Shea.

Because Jake is a sort-of jock strap, I land the team sports duty directly in his lap. So, Friday evenings, after being stuck in a car all day going to see Bubble, Shea will have T-ball practice. Games will probably be on Saturdays.

Jake will take him and hang out. We haven't warned anyone yet about the speech delay. It may not matter in this setting but Jake will be there to translate if necessary.

His theory being that the less said about it, the less of a problem it is. Ok. I will bite and see how it turns out.

Hope he gets on a team with his buddies. But, even if he doesn't, we are hoping and rooting for the best.