Batter Up!

It's baseball season!  It's also tax season.  What does that mean for us? ...

Peyton is playing baseball with Pittsburg Pony.  This is his third year with Coach Dave and Coach Tobin.  Maryam is playing softball with Delta Baseball and Softball Leage.  This is her first year as an official player. (She has "practiced" a bit with Peyton's team in the past.)  Fortunately or unfortunately--I haven't figured out which it is yet--their practices overlap twice a week.  Scheduling is becoming quite interesting, especially since Tobin is super busy at work.  Alas, the woes of the soccer, or baseball, mom!

Peyton loves playing baseball.  He was a little wary this year, since he moved up a division and is playing with a harder ball now.  Around Christmas time, he and Tobin were playing catch together at the park one afternoon.  Peyton missed a "pop fly" thrown by Tobin, and ended up catching the ball with his mouth.  Needless too say, there was a lot of screaming, crying, and blood involved.  The inside of Peyton's lip was split open, and Tobin ended up taking Peyton to the minor injury clinic to make sure he didn't need stitches.  This view of his fat lip doesn't paint an accurate picture of the hamburger that was the inside of the poor boy's mouth!

Since this little mishap, Peyton has done fine.  He was a little scared to start the season, but all in all, he is doing well now.  I think he will really love it once the games start in a couple of weeks.  (I'm already hyperventilating about the scheduling nightmare that could become, even though I don't have his game schedule yet.)

Maryam's team got off to a rocky start.  The original coach quit unexpectedly, so another mom stepped up as the team coach.  It's her first year coaching softball, and she is working like mad to learn all the rules, drills, etc.  Poor lady!  It's a steep learning curve!  Maryam is working hard to learn softball skills.  She wishes that the girls pitched overhand, like boys do in baseball.  She is not used to underhand pitching and is struggling with batting.  I think with some more practice and a positive attitude, she will soon be batting just fine.

There's so much drama with the parents on her team right now.  Most of the other parents didn't know what happened with the original coach, and assumed that our coach just isn't on top of things.  I'm struggling to find the balance between staying clear of the drama, supporting the new struggling coach, and informing other parents of the rough hand that was dealt to this coach.  Ugh!  I hope girls softball doesn't always involve this much drama!  Next year has to be better, right???

Braden and Natalie love that their older siblings are playing baseball and softball.  Why?  Well, it means that four times a week they get to play at the park for two long hours, or more! Luckily, both parks we practice at this year have great playgrounds.  The little ones get their fill of running, sliding, climbing, etc., while the big kids practice.

It's time to break out the summer hats and sunscreen!  Let's play ball!