Baseball.

Back in late May/early June after watching the movie Sandlot no less than 2349734 times, The Boy came to us and insisted it was his life's dream to play baseball.

The child that could not catch a ball to save his life wanted to play ball. The one that had never played, couldn't really hit, can barely throw and did I mention CANNOT CATCH A BALL wanted to play baseball. He told us: "I know I wanted to play tennis and do archery but now I am just really thinking I need to do baseball after it got in my head. I just keep thinking about it and thinking about it after I watched the Sandlot. It's just in my head. So I am going to have baseball be my sport now"

So we did what any normal parents would do - said 'sure' when his uncle wanted to buy him a glove for his birthday. Paid our registration fee after researching where he needed to play for Fall Ball. And began to pray that somehow, between June and the start of fall ball, there would be some miracle of baseball and he would miraculously Learn Everything There Was To Know About Baseball - especially that he would learn it was not that you hit the ball through the touchdown things to get a point AND that he would learn to catch.

Almost a month in? The Boy is having a ton of fun. He is excited about practice and loves batting and game days are the best days ever. After each practice and each game when asked if he had a good time, there is always a quick response of "yes" and usually it is followed by "it was fun!" or "THAT was AWESOME"

The kids were able to pick out their numbers, and there was no doubt in my mind what number he would pick. It is, after all, his favorite number from his favorite movie. I imagine that number will follow him for a few years to come.

One of The Boy's favorite parts of the game (aside from batting and getting to slide because it's not a good game if the white pants aren't filthy!) is the post-game Icee!

When asked, The Boy will tell you the things that stand out about baseball this far are: batting is fun, icees after the game are awesome, you should always cheer when your team is batting, the rule you should never slide in to 1st base is the dumbest rule ever, sliding is the favorite part about running the bases, and if there were any position he could play he would want to be back-up 1st baseman. After informing him there was No Such Thing he was a bit devastated, as he knew he couldn't be 1st baseman but wanted to be there because they ALWAYS throw the ball to 1st and "really why did they let me practice as a back-up 1st base if that isn't even a position?" Oh the logic.

Tonight was a fun time - The Boy said it was going to be kind of hard because we played the Spikes, a team that had all of The Boy's friends from church. It was an awesome game and both teams played hard. The Boy spent most of the game in the outfield - I spent most of the game in a chair yelling and cheering so the only pictures I have are through-the-fence but you can see he's ready for any action there in the outfield!

Despite big hitters on the Spikes, the Astros pulled it out for a win! The Boy had 2 RBIs and did a good job backing up various other players while playing in the outfield! David and I were having a tough time cheering on our Astros yet balancing it out as we also cheered for Tripp, Bryn and Gray on the Spikes.

We've now won 2 and lost 2 this season. Coach gave us a few days off - for this I'm glad as getting to bed late nearly every night is taking its toll on The Boy. But I'm so glad we opted to let him pursue this "life dream" of his. And he says he 'totaley' wants to play in the spring. We're So There. And who knows, maybe that sandlot dream of his will one day come true!

I'm the only one still awake so I think I'll try and sleep. Be safe. Make good choices. Be back soon.

~ Shan.