Go Baby Go!

My little girl is kicking butt on the tball field. Is it horrible that I'm thrilled about that? Tough. You need to understand the history of my athletic endeavours. In summary, I suck. Not "kind of bad". I totally suck. My mother used to sit in the bleachers watching my softball games and yell out to me "OPEN YOUR EYES!". Thanks Mom.

But now there's Jess. She was my easy baby. She never did much to attract attention to herself. She never cried. She would (and still does) eat anything. Always a happy smile on her face. But that left her at a disadvantage in our house with her two sisters - who had definite, bold and demanding personalities. Until now that is........

Jess expressed an interest in joining a tball team and started playing a few months ago. The team's name is "The Fearless Fairies". (Can you tell the girls picked the name? Not exactly a monicker that strikes fear into the heart of their opponents).

We watched her run. She was FAST, but we sort of knew that. We started to notice that the coach always let her play pitcher which is a pivotal position on the tball field. We started watching her hustle and chase down balls. We were impressed that she picked up the rules of the game so quickly and would know where to throw the ball and try to tag out the runner. We cheered and screamed in our amazement at the talents of our little "quiet baby".

Last week Jess's team (made up of Kindergarteners) played a team made up mainly of second graders. They were getting trounced. I could tell Jess was getting frustrated but when she would go into the dugout I would try to emphasize that this was just for fun. (OK - I didn't really mean it but I was trying to be a good example.) The coaches moved her to the pitcher position. The first two batters belted the ball into the outfield and we watched them get runners on 2nd and 3rd base. I kept telling myself it was just a game. Yeah, right. Then the next batter hit the ball straight to her. Jess scooped it up. She started running to home base. I had no idea what she was doing. She got to home plate and stood there and tagged the 3rd base runner OUT! The crowd went wild! I shrieked "THAT'S MY BABY!!!" I was so loud I made the man sitting next to me jump. I couldn't believe she knew to do that! I was so proud of her I couldn't stand it.

GO BABY GO!