It's been month end at work and has been very very hectic. I dread it every month and I'm so very glad that it's over!! But I've said it before and I'll say it again though... I'm so thankful for my job. It's been yet again another busy week for us, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Abby is playing softball and she is loving it this year. This is her first year playing "real" softball. Her Team is called the Diamond Dolls (too cute) and the team sponsor is InterCall (where Kyle works)...how cool is that.?.? It's coach pitch and has been great so far. JB and Heather Davis are her coaches and they are really good. She is really liking it. I posted a couple of pictures of her first game above that I took with my phone. They aren't too clear, but hey, that's the best I could do that day. One picture is of her by herself and the other one is of Abby and Allie (JB & Heather's daughter & my friend Linda Garrett's grandaughter). They are alot alike and have quickly become good friends. They have alot in common, which we already knew. Haha! I'm going to take some more pictures at her game on Tuesday and post them. It's been hard for me to get any good pictures b/c I'm the team Mom which means I am also the "dugout" mom. That's a job. LOL for real. But hopefully either me or Rylee will be able to get some good ones Tuesday. Well, I'm about to call it. I'm tired. Mama~ be careful coming home tomorrow and I hope everybody has a wonderful weekend!! I love ya'll!!
Nanny
For Auntie Joy
2 comments:
Abby, you go girl.
I love your ball playing outfit.
Ya'll look so cute.
I love you!
Aunt Joy
The pictures are good, very clear. And I know what it's like to be in charge of the dugout so I believe you when you say that's a challenge. Other than pitching, which thankfully the head coach does, my job is the toughest on the staff during a game (yep, I reckon I am on the staff now - the head coach gave me a cap early this season without me even asking for one because I was always an involved parent, helping out whenever they needed it - feels good now when the kids see me wearing that cap and call me "Coach").
My basic job is to watch the lineup, keep the boys batting in order, and to alert them when they are getting close in the lineup so they can get their gear on and their bats in hand and be ready. Thankfully, most of the kids have by now learned who they bat after so that has gone along pretty much on autopilot lately. But if a kid is sick or doesn't show up for some other reason, you can hit a snag, and some of the youngsters aren't always ready regardless.
Just the other night, the kid that was supposed to be on deck was in the bathroom but I didn't know it, and I couldn't find him. I was hoping the kid currently batting would foul off a bunch of pitches to stall things while I sent another player to find the missing one. Then it was his time to bat and still no sign of him. Would have been an automatic out but about that time, here he comes running back. It will make you go crazy, stuff like that, and also a lot of the kids don't listen when you tell them to sit down and wait for me to call them so that's it's not chaotic around the dugout door. They walk around in the dugout with bats over their shoulders, dinging other kids on the head when they turn around. When they head out to play defense after our batter gets out #3, they throw and kicks the bats everywhere and the dugout looks like a hurricane has come raging through there afterwards so I have to pick it all back up.
But I love it, I really enjoy being part of Jaxen's team besides as just a dad cheering from the stands. I have trouble with that, I feel antsy just standing off in the distance watching. Also, it gives me more authority with Jaxen. Before, if I told him something that I thought would help him hit better or field better, he would say that he didn't want me to tell him anything, that the coaches would tell him what to do. Well now Daddy IS a coach, and he actually does seem to respect what I tell him more, at least at the ballpark if not at home!
He's hitting really well now. In Tuesday night's game. He got two base hits his first two at bats, swung at the first pitch both times and hit them. His third at-bat, he got two strikes on him and I thought he might finally strike out, but he hit the third pitch. They threw him out at 1st base but it was a fielder's choice, i.e. there was a runner on 1st who safely reached 2nd base because they chose to throw Jaxen out at first, so he advanced the runner. So even in getting out, he helped move the runner ahead of him closer to home plate. In pro baseball, it's equivalent to bunting or hitting a sacrifice fly ball to advance a runner, and they don't count it against your batting average. So basically he was 3-3 hitting. He's been steadily improving but he's never done that, gone the whole game without striking out. I'm proud of him. Now we just need to work on his fielding. He's been dinged by the ball a few times, which inevitably happens to every player at some point, and so he knows it stings (even though the softer ball they use in Farm League isn't going to seriously injure anyone), so he's gotten a little skiddish when it comes to catching the ball and I am having to try and reinforce the importance of staying in front of the ball and not letting it get by him. In practice Thursday, he continued hitting well and even swung hard enough that several of his hits were hard and made it well out to where the infield plays (before, he would typically hit it soft but in play, which is all the coach said he wants, is for us to put it in play because at this age, most kids in the league aren't going to throw you out.)
And I really, really like the team he's on, the Cardinals. The coaches are great (not talking about myself, but the rest of them, of course), and the kids are amazing. They have always cheered for and encouraged Jaxen. If Jaxen gets a hit or strikes out, the other kids always come up and high five him or make sure to tell him it's ok to strike out and that he can get a hit next time. We were really blessed for him to end up on the team he did. Glad to hear you are also involved with Abby's team, it's a lot of fun and you learn a lot, too. It's taught me much about my relationship with him and has shown me probably more about his character than anything else has lately, that he has amazing potential inside him that he himself doesn't always recognize and that sometimes you have to push him some to discover.
I had at one point wondered whether to sign him up again this year or not, as he had expressed reluctance to play, and I figured his heart might not be in it, and I was even told by a few here and there not to push him if he didn't want to. But I refused to give up on him and chose to believe in him, and it turns out I am glad I did. He's not the most talented kid on the team by any means, and he still has a long way to go if he wants to advance up to the next league next year (he says he does, he wants to bat against the piching machine), but he has really improved and is having fun, and the kids have all really embraced him and made him a part of everything even going back to last year, and I think he has developed confidence in himself, which he really needs because, like his Daddy, he can be a doubting Thomas especially when it comes to believing in one's self. Had I not stuck with it and knew in my heart he could do it, I think I would have regretted it. So it's taught me just as much as it has Jaxen.
Post a Comment