TBall

Well, tonight was our first evening of juggling kids' schedules. Thursdays have been, since January, Ariel's ballet class. Today we added TBall to that. The practice follows ballet just a half hour later, which doesn't give us much time to get changed and drive 20 minutes to get there. But it is just enough- unless you don't know where the field is and then show up at the wrong one. (whoops) But in the end, we made it, just about 15 minutes late, and Ariel had great fun. She is one of two girls on the team, and she was excited to see her classmate Tyler was playing on her team too.

What makes this particular day even more special than to mark the baseball season and the fact that our kids are now playing team sports (I am getting older), is Nathaniel. We all know that he tends to be quite the sensitive thing, but today his normal drama was compounded by his weariness from staying up late last night and by the fact that Mommy *gasp* made him wear his sneakers. yup. That was the problem that started the craziness tonight.

What used to be the coolest, fastest sneakers ever, are now "stupid shoes, Mommy. I hate them!" Yeah. So, I asked,"What is wrong with them?" And what do you know, it is because he can't get them fastened the way he likes them to be. (I knew this for at least a month, but he changes his mind on things so often, you can never tell what the problem will be on any given day)

Mind you, they are velcro, and you would think that it would be fairly easy to put them on and go. But with him, he has this need for tightly secured shoes. He wants them so tight that they actually create wounds on his feet. Yeah. Blisters, bruises, even gaping holes and broken toenails, bloody messes because he just HAS to have them tight! What is that all about? I have no idea. I think maybe there is something wrong with the nerves in his feet or something, because he doesn't complain about the sores that show up on his feet- except when I clean them with peroxide and put ointment on them so they don't get infected. Good grief. At that point, you can hear him screaming down the street. ; )

Soooo, the drama of the sneakers. Yes. I forced him into the car and buckled him up because he just wouldn't move on his own accord. Then Ariel started yelling at him for screaming, and crying that her ears hurt 'cause he's too loud... then the Mommy wrath came out and they settled down. ; ) Within 2 minutes Nathaniel was asleep. Thank God.

Well, fast forward thru a fun ballet class- Nathaniel still sleeping in the car- Ariel gets changed in the car, and he slowly wakes up. Then I am attempting to find the field with no address or map, and hoping Ariel doesn't start complaining about getting carsick, as we were on country roads, and it felt like a rollercoaster. Finally we found the field- hooray. Nat throws another fit about the shoes. Grrrrr. I am losing my patience... I drag him, crying, to the field, looking around to figure out which guy is the coach... after a few minutes, he showed up. Asked him if he was the Phillies coach. Nope. The Braves. What???? So he called the guy with the teams schedule. Uh, yeah. We're supposed to be at the highschool field. Ok then.

After getting to the right field, again with the dragging of my son, switching between trying to entice him with the idea of making new friends, which he loves, and threatening to set him alone until he was quiet (he is such a Momma's boy, that he of course clung even more to me so that I was tripping over him, and he was begging me to carry him), we met the right coach. Nice. Then since Nathaniel refused to play, we watched Ariel practice batting and she's pretty good. Yes, the coach was pitching the ball. They didn't introduce the stand tonight. Don't know why, but whatever. But the last pitch she hit bounced off towards the bottom of the bat near her hands, and it jumped back up and hit her in the eye/brow. "Great," I thought. "And just in time for Easter and pictures." She had a bright red spot for awhile, but she didn't complain. She is a tough cookie. Guess I'll check it out in the morning.

So, after all the crying and hub-bub, Dustan showed up near the end of practice, and tried to get Nathaniel to play ball. Didn't work. He just turned the waterworks on again, and he has a runny nose right now, so having snot everywhere was not helping. Nat just couldn't be convinced.

Later when we got home and had a snack, we went for a walk to the playground. By this time, he was in a great mood, and was talking big about Tball, and how he loves to play and he'll be so fast, and hit the ball far and.... good grief. Let's hope he sustains some of his newly found enthusiasm for the next practice on Tuesday. Let's really hope!