Our Little Slugger

We've now made it through three successful weeks of T-ball friends.  There have been no tears.  No laying down, hopelessly exhausted, in the field.  No injuries.  No placing of the tee on the head like we did with soccer cones.  There HAS been hitting of the ball, running (Dude's version - a swift jog), chasing of the ball (he'll run from first base to left field if that's where the wind carries that little white object), LOTS of double thumbs up, an understanding of general baseball rules (we hit, we run to first base, we touch first base, we keep running until we get home, we chase the ball in the field, we throw the ball to 1st base when lucky enough to get our hands on it and we line up to do high fives after the game is over). 

All of this our little Dude understands and is doing an admirable job at it I must say.  Sure, he gets distracted by dogs and fire trucks and a dandelion growing nearby, but so do 99.9% of all the kids out there.  We're not aiming for the minor leagues here folks, but this is certainly a great opportunity to learn teamwork, exercise, following direction, hand eye coordination...and we get to giggle a whole lot with our friends.  It's a win, win. 

 I decided it was safe to bring the camera and document the happenings of the morning, so here ya go.  Our bud, Brady, is on our team, along with our friend Cody.  Brady is doing a remarkable job, especially in the hitting department.  He's learning the need to run after smacking the crap out of the ball.  Cody wears baseball pants and slides into every base.  You see why we giggle.  Every child carries his own reasons.    

They all flock to the ball.  At one point, Dude flat out took the ball out of another teammate's glove and threw it to 1st.  He looked at me and gave me the double thumbs up and I just didn't have the heart to tell him that it's not ethical to steal from your own teammate.  He was so proud.

 I love Brady's determination here.  And Dude is ready to tackle anyone who gets in his way. 

 Look at that athlete run.  With his glove on too.  We've been working on keeping it on the hand and not on his head.  He's getting over how "heavy" the glove is on his hand.

"What coach?  I can't hear a thing you're saying with this big red helmet over my ears."  That's pretty much what he's saying here as the coach instructs him to run to home plate when the ball is hit.