Baseball and Butterflies

Recently we "did caterpillars" again!  We all enjoyed getting and naming caterpillars and watching the transformation take place.  We let them go a few weeks ago - 

The caterpillars fill up about 10 days of life around here.  Baseball, however, filled up a few months!  Isaiah was recruited to The Reds and he really had a great season.  It was fun to watch him grow in his ability to throw, catch, and hit.  He started as an outfielder but was moved to pitcher a few games into the season.  Since they play machine pitch, this meant he did the fielding from that position.  It was fun to have so much contact with the ball!  For him, the best part of playing was "hitting and catching the ball and being involved in play."  His team was first in their division and won a trophy.  Woohoo!  

And our family learned how to be a baseball family!  We have never participated in a sport that involved a 2-3 night commitment.  Some weeks, this felt like a little much, but it was always enjoyable and relaxing to sit outside and watch the games in the pre-mosquito time of the year.  We had friends joins us and picnic w/ us for a handful of games, which was sweet.  

I learned that washing little boy baseball pants requires a lot of effort.  Well, I actually learned that it's not worth the effort to make them white when they get re-stained within 2 minutes of a game.  

I also learned that I can hardly make it through a baseball game without getting teary.  There are so many levels of relationships at play - parent/child, coach/team, teammates, opposing teams..  Hearing one of our players shout out to his mom, "Mom!  Did I do ok?!" brought me to tears.  Seeing the coach give Isaiah a high 5 and praise him made me teary.  Isaiah's first run?  Yep.   Watching the team jump and cheer as their teammate rounded the bases, tears.  Truly, the victories and defeats of individuals or the team as a whole brought me to tears every single game.  I don't know if I am cut out for being a sports mom.  I'm a mess!

Isaiah really loved it and is already excited for next season.  We're so proud of the way this kid jumps into anything with such confidence and willingness to learn.