T13: Best Shots From Little League

Noah got off to a bit of a shaky start at the beginning of little league, but once he got the hang of what to do in the field, he did great. His last couple of weeks he stayed completely in the game even while fielding, and caught his first pop fly last night. His expression after he caught it was of complete shock and surprise.

And believe it or not, he even wants to play again next year.


So in honor of the first season of little league being complete, here are 13 of my favorite shots from this season.

1. I was impressed that he actually listened to and followed the coach's instructions about how to hit.


















2. Here he is catching his first (and only) pop fly. He was as surprised as everyone else.
















3. After begging to play catcher, it took awhile getting used to how fast the ball came flying at him.









4. Not sure what this expression is, but he had lots of silly expressions throughout the games


















5. One of his better moments of keeping focused on the game while in the outfield.

















6. Is this baseball or ballet (the pointed foot)












7. Noah had some great facial expressions when he hit the ball


















8. By the last night, he was starting to get how to tag people out when they ran home.












9. Thumbs up!














10. I think he's actually smiling while he's running the bases.


















11. He had a tendency to bounce onto each base, rather than run through like he was supposed to.












12. Luckily, the tendency to draw in the dirt started to go away after the first few games.

















13. Here's the proud ball player with his medal.


















I can't wait until next year when Aaron can join him on the ball field. They're growing up so fast.

Weekend Top Five

A good weekend. Each day started out cold and rainy, and ended up beautiful.

Here are my top five:





5. MIL visit and Noah's field day
My MIL came for a short visit Friday afternoon. I was originally supposed to have a garage sale and she was coming down to take Aaron for a few hours, but I ended up moving the sale and she came down anyway. After some grocery shopping due to a huge sale on meat, we went out to a park by Noah's school to pick him up from his "walk-a-thon" (kind of like his schools' version of a field day).

No surprise, Noah spent the entire half hour walk with the girl from his class.

Noah's on the left
4. Baseball game
For Noah's second game, he and I rode our bikes to the ball park, which was a fun change. Noah finally got to play "catcher" for one of the innings. He struggled a little because the pads kept falling off of him and he seemed a little scared of the ball at first, but it was much more fun than hanging in the outfield, which he did all three of the other innings.





3. Meijer Gardens
My brother and his family were here for the weekend. So after a very rainy beginning to Saturday, we decided to take the kids out to Mejijer Gardens.

The butterfly exhibit was supposed to close at the end of April, but there were still quite a few flying around. We were fascinated by one big African moth. It was bigger than our hands and the volunteer there was very knowledgeable about all of the butterflies.








There is also an arboretum and sculpture park. I will be sharing my favorite sculpture later in the week.


Here's Aaron and the bear sculpture















The kids had fun playing in the children's garden, including a HUGE treehouse with different rooms and rope bridges, but my favorite part was the nature trail they have. It runs along a river and ends up at an old farmhouse and barn.















The major event of the nature trail was "turtle spotting". They were everywhere. The turtles were very active and we saw a ton of them. My sister in law won the award for being the expert frog spotter.










I even got a cute picture of all five cousins peeking out of the little kids' gate










2. Mother's Day Gifts
Steve got out of bed early Sunday morning to make a pancake breakfast for us before church, and I opened my presents from the boys. Steve had taken the boys to one of the Michael's craft nights to make me cards and had also helped them to paint trivets for me. Noah was also proud to have made a stepping stone for me. I can't wait to find the perfect place to put it in the yard.






1. Mother's Day Afternoon
We had a nice relaxing visit at my parents' after church for Mother's Day. My brother's family was still there as well as one of my stepbrothers and his family. We came home mid-afternoon and it finally got warm outside so Steve took the boys outside to play for a little while.








The Week Ahead:
We have baseball games Monday, Wednesday, AND Friday this week, and Noah's Spring concert Thursday night. Top it all off with my student recital on Saturday afternoon. Should be a busy week. I can't believe there are only three more Mondays to deal with before summer vacation. Woo Hoo!

Have a great Monday.

Friday Follow Ups: A Rambling Post

An interesting week. We played around with a lot of the routines in our household this week, most of which have made life much better.

This is one of those posts where I am just trying to sort through the events of the week. It has felt REALLY long. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

As I mentioned on Monday, Aaron was having accidents pretty much constantly last week and into the weekend. I started reminding him to use the bathroom pretty much every hour on the hour, if not more frequently, and he has been accident free all week. I was worried that maybe he was sick but I think he was just too busy to stop and use the facilities.

The issue we were dealing with Noah with staying up way too late because of his sniffling was another one we tackled this week. At my SIL's suggestion, we changed him from Claritin to Zyrtec. I was a little worried because instead of $3 a month, it will be $13, but it has made such a difference, that it may be the best $13 I spend each month.

Another change I am making is moving Aaron away from taking naps during the day. We had been having a lot of trouble keeping him in bed at night and had even confiscated the bed from him for awhile. For no other reason than pure selfishness, I was putting off quitting naps. I loved that time to myself. But in the interest of what Aaron needed, I instead have allowed him to sit on his bed and look at books instead of going to sleep. It has served the purpose of falling asleep quicker at night, and not fighting with him every day to settle down at quiet time.










After 10 days of being diet cola free, I am falling asleep way better than I ever was before, and staying asleep in the night. I still crave it every day, but I know it is a good change that I am already seeing the benefits from.

I spent the latter half of the week sorting clothes and toys and getting ready for next week's garage sale. It has been a challenge since we have no space to put the stuff we're planning to sell, even after it's sorted. I hope we can make enough to get Noah a bike. Both of them have grown out of their current ones and bike rides are not comfortable for either of them.






Steve spent most of the week trying to find a missing piece to Noah's old training wheels to put back on the bike when we give it to Aaron. I think we're going to have to bite the bullet and shell out $15 for a new set of training wheels for that bike. He also was dealing with the loss of a co-worker who suffered a massive heart attack in his sleep this week. Kind of freaky that someone our age, with two young daughters, can just be gone like that. Makes you appreciate how precious, and short, life can be.

After three practices, Noah actually STILL likes baseball. I am hopeful. He is worried about when they start games next week, but as long as he keeps having fun, I think it will be okay.









An elementary school a mile from our church closed this week because of suspected swine flu. The kindergartner had had relatives visit from Mexico over spring break, and a number of other kids from the Spanish immersion school traveled there for spring break as well. It should be interesting to see where it goes from here. I'm not going into a worry mode, but I am double checking the kids that they wash their hands a little more often than usual.

Wow, lots to report. Sounds like Aaron is done with his "quiet time" and it's time to start some more toy sorting. Have a great weekend. We have a superhero birthday party to go to on Sunday. Should be right up the boys' alley.

Friday Photo Story: First Baseball Practce

We have been through many extra curricular activities with Noah, trying to find his niche. There always seems to be something that just doesn't click to make it an activity that he wants to continue.

We tried soccer



2007











We tried self defense





2008













We've tried gymnastics


2009










We don't want to force anything on him, but we also want to give him a chance to try different things to find something that he might enjoy and possibly excel.

So Wednesday night we tried another...Little League.

I was worried that it would be like all the rest....novelty wearing off and seeming like too much work for him to want to see it through.

I was also worried that he would be behind the rest of the kids in his age group since it was his first year. I thought maybe he would be the only kid using a tee while the rest of the kids used the pitch machine and I feared that he would be out playing the sand way more than he actually paid attention to what was going on.

I MAY have been worrying for nothing. We may have found one that is going to stick with.

We got there late since I had gone to the wrong field for practice. But it was okay and he jumped right into playing catch with the other kids on his little team.

Then it was time to start batting. He was a little confused when it was time to put on a helmet



















but once he got up to the plate, he was open to stance help from the coach.



















And after watching a few of the pitches go past him,



















he made amazing contact with ball and got it out toward third base.



















I like how the coach had the practice structured. The each got two turns to bat and then rotated around the infield waiting for the ball to be hit to them.

I was so surprised at Noah in the "outfield" as well. I expected him to spend his entire time doing this:



















But surprisingly enough, each time a kid hit the ball, he hustled to be the first one to pick it up and throw it to first base.



















It was so much fun to watch him. I will miss his Monday night practices since I'll be teaching, but you can bet I'll be one of the loudest cheering on Wednesdays, and I am looking forward to when the games start (even though I have no idea when that will be yet).

The coach ended practice by letting the kids "run a home run" around the field twice, which other moms have told me ends up being the kids' favorite part of practices.














So of course, after a great first practice, there was only one way to celebrate...



















I have no idea if this will be "his thing" or not, but right now he is eager to go back on Monday and that's about all I can ask. I was so proud watching him tonight and you can be sure that I will be subjecting you to MANY baseball pictures in the weeks to come.

Have a great weekend.