Ball Season is Underway!

The kids had their first coed practice of the season last week and boy are we going to have a great summer!  Their coaches were fun and respectful and worked them hard for an hour.  Xavier has watched Natalee play for 2 years now, just barely missing the date cut-off last year, and was so excited for ball season to begin this year that you could probably feel his energy vibrating towards y'all wherever you live!  

There is some great reward in having to wait for something so long and having it live up to every expectation you imagined.  

He was on cloud 9 the whole hour, soaked up every tidbit his coaches fed him, and has his bag carefully packed and hanging ready for practice this week.

 

Xavier is what I often describe as a bit of a dramatist, so when he rounded the base to home and chose to slide into the plate I inwardly groaned.  He got up and I could see the scrapes and droplets of blood on his shin.  "Here we go," I thought.  "Here come the tears."  However, he got up, brushed off, looked at me from the corner of his eye, looked at his home plate coach, and said "whew."  Off he went.  He did put a band aid on a still bleeding spot when he got home but otherwise he never said a word.  That was a bit of a proud mama moment and a true moment of realization that he is growing up.

  

Natalee is getting to experience life as one of the older kids. This is her last year in the coed division.  I noticed that she was calmer, more alert, and more in tune with what is going on in the game.  I also noticed that, while she didn't bend down and play in the dirt, she did make sure she could still make a puff of dust with her cleat. 

Last year she was one of like five or six kids who played lefty.  This year she is the single lefty on her team.  I was pleased that she advocated for herself when she went to bat by telling the coach she batted lefty.

The coaches did an outstanding job at the first practice of talking to each kid, giving them an expectation or something to work on, and then taking the time to practice it right away.  There wasn't yelling or confusion but instead a lot of group and one on one instruction.

I'm excited for the season even if that does mean sitting at practice in the less than sunny and warm weather tomorrow.

Mia took it all in like the big girl she's becoming.  I know what she's thinking...only 3 more years until she can play!