One of my favorite things about being a mom is watching my boys develope into their own little people. I love seeing them experience and try new things and develop likes and dislikes. I don’t want to be running from activity to activity and never having family time, but I also want them to see and try out different things and see if there is something that they are interested in. We did many rounds of mom/baby swim lessons with Leighton and are in the process of those with Caedmon now. Leighton did mom/toddler gymnastics and went from being afraid of climbing on things to gaining confidence in doing that (which now includes him jumping off the end table in our bedroom…). This spring in between the many snow storms Leighton did soccer at the rec center and really enjoyed it once he warmed up to it. And so this summer we’re trying out Tiny Tyke T Ball.
I’m not real sure where they found the two young guys that are the “coaches” but I’m not sure what they thought they were signing up for when they agreed to coach. I find myself giggling each week as I watch the coaches scratch their heads at times. I forgot how much of softball we all know and take for granted. Of course I figured that they would learn how to throw the ball and catch it, but other things like what the names of the bases are or in which direction to run the bases.
Last week they learned the in-field positions. They walked around with the coaches and learned the names. After that the coaches came up with a game where they call out a position and all the kids run to that spot. They did great at the beginning: pitchers mound to second base; second base to third base; third base to first base; first base to ….it was suppose to be short stop, and one of the kids headed in that direction, but the other 6 ran out to the middle of right field. Oh well. They also “learned” how to catch grounders and high balls.
This week they got to actually hit the ball. Leighton was real excited because he got to wear a hard helmet, forget hitting the ball. Of course at home I usually can’t get him to wear a hat. From there they played a game of tag around the bases, one kid was to run the bases with another kid chasing after him. The first kid took off and made it to 1st base and then kept on running out to the field, he never made the turn. The coaches called him back and showed him how to get to 2nd base. He didn’t want to go to 2nd base, so much so that he started crying. And then none of the other kids wnated to play tag around the bases. The coaches were at a loss. They evenutally gave up and decided to call the team together and decide on a team name since they were getting their team shirts. The team shirts are bright green. They asked for suggestions for names for the team, the first kid offered up the name “Soccer”. The coaches tried again, asked the kids if there was another idea for a name, the second kid offered up “Animal” as the team name. Thinking they were getting somewhere they asked the kids to think of an animal that they could call themselves, maybe one that was green since that was the color of their shirts. And after thinking for a moment, Leighton offered up the name “Basketball”. Granted neither green nor really a good name for a baseball team, when the kids took a vote, they all voted for the name “Basketball”. The coaches just hung their heads. And us parents just laughed.
Hiking Mommy 