A Day at the Ball Field

There's nothing that says summer's here like a day at the ball field. I know, technically it's not summer, but when it's 85 degrees outside, I'm callin' it summer. Here are some... uh highlights?... of the day:

• As we were preparing to leave for the ball games, I finished getting dressed and walked into the kitchen. I was wearing a black tank top (so I could get some sun on my shoulders) and some red above-the-knee pants (rolled up so I could get some sun on my legs). My clothes may have been a little flashier than normal, but hey, my winter white skin needed a little vitamen D, not to mention color. I don't think Hayden approved because as I entered the kitchen he looked up, and said, "is that what you're wearing to my ball game?"
• Hayden's team won their second straight week. Hayden played first base backup and handled his postion flawlessly. When he was up to bat and had made his way around the bases, there was a tense moment when he was running to home base, and a player from the opposing team was running toward home with the ball. The crowd cheered Hayden on as he sprinted. At home plate, he was one step ahead and was safe. He smiled all the way to the dugout, clearly pleased with his accomplishment.
• During Hayden's game, Brandon became spirit filled - sort of. He has recently been fascinated with burping and was showing off his burping skills to Nana. After a nice, prolonged burp, when mom and I had lost interest and were paying him no attention, he boldly announced, " burp, burp, PRRRAAISE THE LORD!" Of course, we began to laugh hysterically sending him into a couple more renditions of "burp, burp, PRRRAAISE THE LORD." I assumed his burp felt so good, he felt the spirit move him.
• During Brandon's game, Hayden became his personal coach. Brandon started out playing first base, and his coach kept telling him to wait there and not run for the ball. Well, Hayden kept telling Brandon to run for the ball. Brandon, having more history and as a result more trust in Hayden, kept running for the ball. Then his coach would tell him not to run, Hayden would tell him to run - okay are you seeing the cycle? Finally, Brandon became fed up because he wasn't catching the hit balls(his job being to stand on first and catch the balls his team mates throw to him), so he dramatically removed his glove, threw it on the ground, and stomped ball-field dust all the way to the gate where he exited and walked as far away from the game as I would let him get. The coach got him and put him in a position where he could catch some hit balls. Brando got the next five and decided he was done catching, so he wandered to another spot on the field. Oh the joy and madness of 4-year-old boys playing t-ball. And mystery... well, there was a lot of that - what is he doing in the other team's dugout? Why is that one that just hit running straight to second base (skipping 1st altogether)? What is that little boy burying in the dirt out there? Why are there only 5 boys on the field, we started with 10? You've just gotta love them.
• Hayden is also Brandon's number 1 cheerleader. Brandon loved the cheers in the first inning, but by the second inning he had had enough. He left his position on the field, wandered toward Hayden who was hanging on the fence watching and cheering, put his non-gloved hand on his hip, leaned forward, and yelled, "I DIDN'T CATCH THE BALL, NOW STOP CHEERING!" He then turned and stomped back to his position, a little circle one of the coaches had made in the dirt for another little boy who kept wandering earlier in the game. Finally, during his last bat, he made it to first just fine, but between first and second he decided to WALK super, duper, schmuper slow (ask Brandon for the defintion of that, but lets just say, it's REALLY slow).
• Of note, Brandon was one of the calmer kids on his team today... scary, I know.
• Oddly enough, we're making progress. Last week Brandon got mad right after the first half of the first inning and left the field and no amount of prompting would get him back out there. He did play the whole game today, so we were quite proud.

Finally, at noon, three hours after we arrived at the ball field, both games were over and we had started our journey home. As we were driving out we saw the Kona Ice Truck (this is a truck that drives around our town in the summer and sells shaved ice with every possible flavor imaginable - and it has some flavor faucets on the outside of the truck so you can create your own - it's very cool).

Kona Ice and baseball - OH YES, it is definitely summer.

(By the way, did you see how that love, joy, mystery, and madness thing worked out in this post? Pretty neat, huh?)