An Era Begins

We experienced the first of many sporting events (well, at least I think so) this past week with John. It was about as expected, providing lots of laughs and not a lot of sport. :) PRACTICE: Luckily Garrett and Elyse are on the team (made up of co-ed 3-5 year olds), otherwise, I am not sure we would have ever gotten John to participate. I use the word loosely, but the kids "stretching" was SUPER cute! I love watching John at school and in group settings where I am simply a spectator. They ran the bases and did some catching, but there was not a lot of coaching going on. Our head coach is a last minute volunteer that has no experience. Then they got on the field and took turns batting and standing (or sitting, or dancing, or walking, or whatever) in the outfield. GAME: The first game was after only 1 practice and we were playing the best team in the league with a hard core coach and they had already practiced 6 times! WHAT?!?! THREE YEAR OLDS! It is 5 innings or 1 hour long... thank goodness for the hour time limit, or it would have been a LONG morning. Carl started putting a happy face sticker on the ball and John is able to make contact with it almost every time (as opposed to contact with the T every time). Carl is a great coach. John likes hitting and running the bases, but being the outfield is not is favorite. In fact, he spends a total of about 5.3 seconds out there before coming to sit down with us. We tried everything, he had no desire. I even tried some force, but that did not go over well and I feel really bad about it and will not do it again! The hit of the game was the big red treat bucket I brought for the team after the game (thanks to Carl suggesting this to me). Not sure John is quite ready for this, but at least it is introducing the idea of a team to him. I hope to write another blog in 6 weeks when the season is over with some learned skill or excitement over the whole thing. P.S. I am doing my best not to get nervous for him or be "that parent", but man oh man, my competitive side wants to jump right out. I am learning too! Pictures: