Covering the base-ics

Weather permitting (there's rain in the forecast), AJ will have his second baseball practice tonight. Hopefully I'll remember to bring my camera, because for all the wonderful features my iPhone has, a zoom lens is not one of them. Here's the best shot I got from from Monday's practice.


Practice started with some key lessons. The first one being - the coaches' names. Next up - which direction to run to round the bases. Turns out that was important. A lot of the kids didn't know. Even more didn't know that there were four bases. They wanted to stop after making it to first.

The picture above shows their throwing and catching exercise. The coach had the kids pose like skateboarders or goal posts. The skateboarders held their arms out to throw. The goal posts held their arms up to catch. Perhaps AJ would do better as a flag pole. With his arms out like a goal post, he managed to get hit in the face with a ball. As Jeff, who is one of the assistant coaches, commented, "You forget how literal these kids are when you give them directions."

Meanwhile, Sydney and I spent the time on the playground adjacent to the baseball field.

After all the hours she had to kill at a cold hockey rink last winter, she's probably thinking it's about time her brother play a summer sport. I couldn't agree more.

In this photo, she's yelling, "Blast off!" as she took me on a rocket ship ride.

And here she's showing her muscles:

I have to admit I was surprised (and impressed) by how long she could hang from the jungle gym. This little girl is strong! She's going to be crushed if there is practice tonight. It's scheduled for a different field, where there is no nearby playground. And, coincidentally, it's right next to the hockey rink.