t-ball: week #3
in case anybody was wondering, shortstack is now the proud owner of a pair of white, elastic waisted t-ball britches. they were somehow still on sale at dick's. saving money while conforming to the unexciting uniform standards is awesome. any pant blandness is totally trumped by how ADORABLE they are. and besides, he's still got those rockin' cleats. i did somehow manage to talk shortstack into wearing a plain white pair of underwear instead of his new power ranger ones 'for four-year olds' that grammie mistook for spider-man. [i guess that's what happens when you rode t-rex uphill barefoot in the snow twenty miles to school and back each day...] don't we all wish we could get away with thinking the size on our clothes was our age?
shortstack seems to be really enjoying himself with the whole t-ball thing. we’re not noticing nearly as much frustration as we did with soccer. not sure if it’s the age difference, him learning how to handle his emotions better, or him really liking t-ball. most likely all of the above. he does get visibly disappointed when he isn’t in on a play, but he literally shrugs it off and gets back to his spot and declares his readiness with one ‘i’m ready!’ after another. when his team is on defense, he’s eager to make a play—he will run completely across the field to try to get the ball if he notices it roll past another player. or he’ll run up to the player who got the ball and ask them to let him throw it to the ‘pitcher’ (the kid standing in the circle around the rubber). whenever this happens, i imagine the other player telling shortstack a more colorful version of, ‘i made this play. i’m throwing it to the pitcher as soon as you get out of my way.’ shortstack takes it like a man and makes his way back to his spot in the field.
the funky monkey [AKA the hubs/daddy, hereto known as fm] was loitering behind the bench and witnessed some ultra cool parental validation. [background: shortstack has a small, rather unique birthmark that we mistook as a bruise when he was four weeks old. i can’t tell you how many times someone has said that my son had peanut butter or a smudge of something on his hand. because of where it is, it won’t ever be possible to remove it. fm and i have had countless conversations about keeping it the non-issue it really is and how we all should react to kid’s questions and the cruelty that inevitably sets in.] fm heard one of shortstack’s teammates ask him what was on his hand. shortstack responded, ‘it’s my birthmark’ in a tone that an adult would use say, ‘it’s my birthmark—what’d you think it was, dumbass…’ and that was the end of that. now we all know it’s not always going to be that easy and he’s probably not old enough for it to be any sort of issue yet, but it feels good knowing that he could answer someone’s question about something like that with confidence and not think anything about it. also, one of the players on his team (of course the only one on the team who’s glove looks almost exactly like shortstack’s) couldn’t find his glove and thought shortstack had it. rather than starting something with the kid when he tried to take his glove, shortstack said something like, ‘excuse me, that’s not your glove’ and the proceeded to help his teammate find his own glove.
that afternoon on the bench is a prime example of why fm and i like to step back sometimes and let shortstack try to deal with different situations on his own and not micromanage every interaction and activity. little ones are so uncorrupted—i hope our little shortstack can hang onto his true nature. it makes me cry just thinking about him loosing it. i’m just glad that fm happened to be right there to witness those moments. it is amazing to see things that prove he’s got a heart of gold—to say it warms my cockles does nothing to describe that feeling. it’s more like a warm fuzzy nuclear meltdown in my heart.
shortstack seems to be really enjoying himself with the whole t-ball thing. we’re not noticing nearly as much frustration as we did with soccer. not sure if it’s the age difference, him learning how to handle his emotions better, or him really liking t-ball. most likely all of the above. he does get visibly disappointed when he isn’t in on a play, but he literally shrugs it off and gets back to his spot and declares his readiness with one ‘i’m ready!’ after another. when his team is on defense, he’s eager to make a play—he will run completely across the field to try to get the ball if he notices it roll past another player. or he’ll run up to the player who got the ball and ask them to let him throw it to the ‘pitcher’ (the kid standing in the circle around the rubber). whenever this happens, i imagine the other player telling shortstack a more colorful version of, ‘i made this play. i’m throwing it to the pitcher as soon as you get out of my way.’ shortstack takes it like a man and makes his way back to his spot in the field.
the funky monkey [AKA the hubs/daddy, hereto known as fm] was loitering behind the bench and witnessed some ultra cool parental validation. [background: shortstack has a small, rather unique birthmark that we mistook as a bruise when he was four weeks old. i can’t tell you how many times someone has said that my son had peanut butter or a smudge of something on his hand. because of where it is, it won’t ever be possible to remove it. fm and i have had countless conversations about keeping it the non-issue it really is and how we all should react to kid’s questions and the cruelty that inevitably sets in.] fm heard one of shortstack’s teammates ask him what was on his hand. shortstack responded, ‘it’s my birthmark’ in a tone that an adult would use say, ‘it’s my birthmark—what’d you think it was, dumbass…’ and that was the end of that. now we all know it’s not always going to be that easy and he’s probably not old enough for it to be any sort of issue yet, but it feels good knowing that he could answer someone’s question about something like that with confidence and not think anything about it. also, one of the players on his team (of course the only one on the team who’s glove looks almost exactly like shortstack’s) couldn’t find his glove and thought shortstack had it. rather than starting something with the kid when he tried to take his glove, shortstack said something like, ‘excuse me, that’s not your glove’ and the proceeded to help his teammate find his own glove.
that afternoon on the bench is a prime example of why fm and i like to step back sometimes and let shortstack try to deal with different situations on his own and not micromanage every interaction and activity. little ones are so uncorrupted—i hope our little shortstack can hang onto his true nature. it makes me cry just thinking about him loosing it. i’m just glad that fm happened to be right there to witness those moments. it is amazing to see things that prove he’s got a heart of gold—to say it warms my cockles does nothing to describe that feeling. it’s more like a warm fuzzy nuclear meltdown in my heart.
posted by LBM at 6:23 PM
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