Take Me Out to the Ball Game

With a few practices under his belt, Cael and his T-ball team enthusiastically played their first game on Monday.  If you've ever watched a group of five year-olds try to pay attention to something other than a movie for more than seven or eight minutes, you know that things are bound to become interesting.  And probably sticky.

Cael was the first one from either team to bat, and he gave the other team his game face.  This is also his "you-took-my-brown-crayon-and-now-I'm-going-to-find-someplace-equally-dark-to-shove-it" face, but these kids don't know that.

He made contact with the ball, and we all went nuts.





For a brief moment, I thought I'd stepped into a weird alternate universe.  I could imagine Cael's ball making a powerful arc across the field as he ran a complete circuit around the bases.  In my dream, he'd slide into home plate and everyone would jump to their feet.

Just then, though, Graham let out a particularly loud huff of boredom from his perch on my lap, and I awoke to the reality of Cael trying to run to second base while the ball was already in possession at first.  I also saw, through more realistic eyes, that the fielding members of the other team were nowhere near as concerned with Cael's progression around the bases as we were.

From that point on, it was much less about the fantasy, and much more about trying to keep my family in line.

Cael went to bat several more times, always hitting the ball, but failed to maintain the same level of focus while fielding.  Instead, I watched him make faces at a member of the opposing team for nearly ten minutes and spent several more gawking at the girl doing cartwheels and headstands.

I turned to make a comment to Joel about Cael's preoccupation with the gymnast, and discovered that my husband had regressed to match the mental level of those on the field.  Graham was just being himself.

For the rest of the night, things continued in much the same manner.  I cheered for Cael, Graham cheered for me, Joel yelled at the persistent gnats in our faces, and Cael rounded the bases for home. 

That night was the first of what will probably become hundreds of ball games in my future.  And while I can't pretend to understand all of the rules, or deny the fact that Pinterest was accessed a time or two during the game, I'm glad that Cael knew he had a cheerleader on the sidelines.

And I'm glad I was there, too.