Baseball is going okay so far. Riley is not hitting as well as he usually does, and well...we need to practice. Talan, on the other hand, hit better than we expected him to. He'll turn 4 in a couple of weeks, and we haven't really practiced at home using a real bat (we use plastic usually), but he's pretty stout and he hit like a little champ. Now, Talan's in the outfield, which means he is always in the dirt, but still...I thought he did really well overall.
Now, let me clarify...Riley is doing well too, just not as great as I thought he would be. He had strike after strike tonight off of Kevin's pitches, but when Kevin moved behind him and let someone else pitch so that he could watch Riley's swing better, Riley started hitting. The other man was pitching overhanded, and Riley was hitting alright. Not as good as I've seen him hit before, but alright. We have expectations for Riley because we know what he is capable of. It appears he is starting out in a slump. I truly do believe that performance is hugely impacted by confidence and good mentality, so I am hoping strongly that he pulls out of it quickly, before it begins to really affect him. I know, I know, it sounds as if I'm taking this way too seriously. I am. I know. But if you have a child that loves baseball as much as he does...it would just tear you up to see him struggle and get down on himself.
When I say he loves baseball, I mean he loves baseball. This child has such an imagination, and he does pretend games in the house and outside when he plays. He makes up players, makes up numbers for them, and makes up their ability level--meaning sometimes he's good, sometimes he's not when he's pretending to be them. He'll know who's on 2nd, on 3rd...and so on in his pretend game. He keeps track of everything. Shoot, sometimes he's even a left-handed batter, and swings with his left hand. He loves to watch baseball on TV. He and Spencer have fought on many, many occasions about what channel to watch when they go to sleep. (Yes, I know, bad habit.) I always put it on 32 ESPN when they go to sleep, but on the weekends and many nights over the summer I'll let them watch Nick at Nite or Disney. Well, guess who pitches a fit, wanting to watch baseball? Oh, and yes, he does it for football too. Not so much for basketball though. Not yet, at least.
What about Spencer's team? Well, we're still waiting to hear if there will even be a team for his age group. It's looking like not enough signed up, so we're waiting to hear more information. Spencer doesn't seem heartbroken right now, though. I think he's glad to have some unstructured free time without his brothers. He played his DS and walked around a while. Then headed back to the van with me. Then, he asked Kevin if he could bat, and he also ran the bases with the team. I thought that was pretty cute.
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