Today is my Dad’s birthday. He’s sixty, but, shhhhh, don’t tell anyone.

Happy Birthday, Dad! I’m overjoyed that we get to share the day with you!

Well, it’s 11 am on a Saturday, folks, and you know what that means: 4 and 5 year old T-ball at the ballpark. I’m broadcasting today with Ellie, who is sporting pigtails, a hot pink camping chair, her brothers’ old shorts, eye black (thank you, Unkie) and a peanut butter sandwich.

Josh is playing in front of shortstop, and is wearing his brand new cleats and complimentary eye black. He has chosen to wear his hat backwards today, which means he can, at least, see. We think the surfer dude hair prevents his hat from staying in place.

And, at the end of the top of the first, despite his newfound ability to see the field, Josh did not move once to field the ball. He didn’t even appear to consider it.

For his first at bat, Josh inquired from the batters box, ” may I hold my bat up-side-down this time?” After his coach’s refusal, Josh clobbers the ball past the infield, and runs to first in the new cleets.

Oh man, and minutes after Josh’s team takes the field for the top of the 2nd, it starts to drizzle. We drag our chairs back under the overhang of the snack shop. And then, by the second batter, the skies have opened, and the kids have fled to the dugout! So exciting, we are in rain delay, folks.

And, because we live in the south, the rain stopped just as quickly as it started and, after just a mere 6 minutes in rain delay, and a run to concessions for popcorn, we are back to baseball.

At this point, my Mom, who has fallen behind on her text message reading, texts me back: Why does Ellie have a black eye? Did I miss something? I sooo love the play-by-play!

I love you, Mama. To clarify, Ellie does not HAVE a black eye, she is WEARING eye black. Picture to follow. (Clearly my mama raised only girls).

See, Mama, EYE BLACK.

To which my mother replies: I did raise only girls. Ha!

Josh is batting third on today’s roster. We bat all the way through each inning. Somehow, this means that Josh is the third consecutive lefty to bat each inning.

Totals for the day: Josh, 3 hits, one ball stop. Ellie: one peanut butter sandwich, 2 bags of popcorn, one squeezy cinnamon applesauce, one string cheese and one bottled water. A good day all around!

Mom, is that the baby?
Why does the baby look like a skeleton?
Can we see inside the baby’s head?
Octopus.
Whoa! It’s got a face!
Does it have a tummy?
Which part is the camera?
Is that the heartbeat?
Octopus.
Can we see the blood in the straw?
Do we know if it’s a boy yet?
Can I sit in the chair?
Octopus.
What about hands?
Why did they use that goo again?
Does this hurt?
Can we touch the computer?
Octopus.

Truly, Josh and Ellie never stopped talking. Most of the questions came from Josh, who could not have been more into the equipment and logistics. Ellie, reminiscent of Josh at Ellie’s ultrasound three years ago, thought she saw animals. Hence the repeated “octopus, octopus”.

Sam was pensive and pleased. He couldn’t believe that doctors sometimes use ultra-sound machines to look at injuries or grown-ups’ body parts. He enjoyed hearing about the baby’s exact size. Baby measured a little big: 13 oz and more like 8 or 9 in.

So Baby is big, healthy and put together just right. God is so good, and Lance and I just feel like we’re swimming in blessings.

Okay, enough preamble:

And we couldn’t be more excited!

So Josh just received his uniform, mere minutes before his first game. And, upon donning his hat and picking up his glove he proclaimed, “I am going to beat those Yankees like they’re a piece of dirt.”

Pretty sure we all have Unkie to thank for that enthusiasm and imagery.

And Sam and Josh are both #7 on their respective teams. I made the mistake of exclaiming, “what’re the odds of that?!” To which Lance replied: “the odds of them being the same number is 1 in 12. But the odds of them both being #7 is 1 in 144.” There you go, folks.

Josh played short stop, second tier for the top of the 1st. He never once moved, flinched or even considered going for the ball. Then, he got a big hit! AND he knew where 1st base was BEFORE he started running.

I love t-ball. We’ve already watched one kid circle the pitching mound on the way to 1st. And then several times, the kids fielded the ball, threw the ball towards homeplate, and then ran to 1st.

Josh is now playing on the pitchers mound. He actually ran for the ball with the last batter! And then he slid on his knees when another kid got to it 1st.

And some kid wiffed so hard, he busted the tee. We had to pull the back-up tee out of the visitors dugout!

HE FIELDED THE BALL AND RAN IT ALL THE WAY TO FIRST!!! Go Josh!

Josh got another great hit! So proud of my lefty. our next to last batter just ran to first, via the mound and third base. He is quite winded!

And the final score: 24 to 24. Teams of 12, they bat around twice, and the last batter clears the bases every time. Josh is filthy, hungry and has a gatorade mustache!

And now we’ve moved ourselves, our chairs, our cooler and our wagon from field 3 to field 1 where Sam and his team are warming up. The coaches just traded line-up cards!

This interrupts our play-by-play slightly, but apparently my belly and I cannot sit on bleachers. I brought lawn chairs, and if I jam my purse behind my lower back, then the bleacher pain stops!

First game of the season. Taking a long time to calibrate the pitching machine.

So our second batter (sam’s team now), first stands on the plate. Then moves to the wrong side of the plate, facing away from the box. And then, when he finally gets into position, he swings light-saber-style with one hand. Kind of a chopping motion. Going to be a long season!

So I thought we only got 3 outs, like standard baseball, but apparently we are batting around. We’ve had six strikeouts and 1 single. Sam has not batted yet.

Oh my gosh! Sam swung at the first pitch, made contact and ran to first! And then he did a victory dance and some major fist pumps!

Oh man! And the kid behind him got a single after fouling several off! So now Sam’s dancing at second!

Our Sam is playing third base. He is still dancing. And he may be drawing in the dirt with his shoes. But when a batter is up, he is baseball ready, knees bent, glove down. And then the dancing starts again.

Sam fielded the ball. Didn’t quite make the play, but had a nice stop and made a good throw to first.

Sam’s second time at bat: HUGE hit through a gap in the infield! It sounded like a hit, if you know what I mean! And then he danced at first again. He advanced two runners!

And the next batter gets a two-foot fair hit, and somehow we score! The current score 1-0.

Final batter: they’ve got guys on 1st and 2nd. We’re up, 2-1. Big out coming up!

Oh, man, their last batter fouls one off and somehow hurts his hip. Coach comes over, rubs some dirt on it, and says, “You’re good”. He strikes out, Sam’s team wins!

Slammin’ Sammy, deliriously happy after his game, grinning from ear to ear. “Happy ride” home for sure.

That’s all for today, folks. This sportswriter is now headed to bed with a big bowl of Cheerios. Good night!

“I a darf vader.”
-Ellie, unprompted, with a Wendy’s frosty spoon

One thing we really love is going to baseball games as a family. Lance and I have spent several anniversaries in St. Louis, watching the Cardinals battle the Cubs. And when we lived in Illinois, we were regular attenders at the Illini baseball games. Sadly, baseball just isn’t as big down here in the south.  Apparently everyone is still recovering from college football season by the time spring comes. There is no major league team in South Carolina– the closest is 5 hours away in Atlanta. And the college games are simply not quite as accessible as dear Illinois Field.

So we are compensating with something new. That’s right, folks, we are becoming Minor League baseball fans. Tickets are cheap, parking is easy, beer is sold, and Sam has declared that the hotdogs taste just right.

We made it out to one Charleston Riverdogs game last year (we discovered them a bit too late in the season), and we kicked off this season with a visit to Fluer Field, home of the Greenville Drive.

Perfect weather, funny mascots, flying T-shirts. Couldn’t have been more fun! And the Drive is a minor league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, so the stadium features its own green monster.

Did I mention that these were fancy realistic farm animals? Yeah, the cheapest one was six dollars, and the most expensive was eight. At one point I calculated that Ellie had surrounded herself with at least $200 worth of farm animals. Mimi the Softie let her pick out two animals to take home. And then, to get her away from those left behind, Mimi handed Ellie a $20 and told her that she could pay all by herself.
What Mimi hadn’t counted on was Ellie’s ability to sense The Softiness. Ellie, sniffing weakness, selected a third neigh on her way to check out. And, wouldn’t you know it, the $20 just didn’t cover it!