T-ball

Bekah participated in the Ucon T-ball league this summer for the first time. Before the first game, I had visions of my child learning to field grounders and catch pop flies and hitting the ball clear into left field. That may still come ... in time. But when you round up a group of 4- and 5-year-olds for a team, it's just not going to happen during a 12-game season. In fact, you're lucky if your kid remembers to run from first to second base when the ball is hit.

However, Bekah did grasp a lot of the basics of the game. She learned to:

Field the ball (which NEVER made it past the baseline, no matter how athletically gifted the child was),

call for the ball to be thrown back to the catcher (which turned out to be her favorite position),

place it on the tee (when playing the coveted catcher position) and warily eye the runners from the other team,

swing the bat without knocking the tee over (most of the time),

and hustle around the bases. (By the way, she picked out her outfit for the last game ALL BY HERSELF. A pink skirt and the mismatched socks she got for her birthday totally go with her over-sized team shirt.)

And, last but not least, Bekah learned a little bit of what it's like to be part of a team.

(Thanks, Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dennis, for getting her to the pictures and her game this day while we were here making this.)

Some of my favorite moments from the season include:

• The baseman who got confused and ran the bases with the runner.
• One child who threw his bat after hitting the ball. It was not the typical bat throw ... he deliberately chucked it straight up into the air.
• Bekah catching a roly poly bug while playing third base and showing it to every kid on the other team who stopped by.
• The wide array of nose-picking and grass-plucking we witnessed.
• Bekah proudly declaring, "First strike!" while playing catcher and watching a kid whiff it, and telling another kid, "I got you out!" after fielding the ball and touching first base. (There are no runs, strikes or outs in the 4- and 5-year-old league.)
• The coach's kid who sat down in the field and when his mom told him to stand back up, he told her, "I just fell down!"
• The repeated questioning of the children: "When is the game over? When do we get treats? How much longer?"
• Bekah knocking bills with every kid who came to her base when she was wearing her hat and they were wearing their helmets.