Play Ball!

Baseball fever has suddenly taken over the body of our (almost) four-year-old, and it is pretty funny! I've never been particularly athletic, and Gus was a swimmer/water polo player back in the day. So where does baseball fit in? Who knows. But the kid sure does have a passion for it!

Grant and Melissa got him one of these (a pitching machine/tee) for his third birthday, and it sat unused for quite a while. All of a sudden, as is often the case with toys, it was the BEST TOY EVER! Nikos played with it all the time! And he actually got pretty skilled at hitting the balls it flung at him. So much so, in fact, that he eventually lost all the balls it came with. He hit the last one over the back fence earlier this week-- doh!

Anyway, he was so sad about the loss of the baseballs that I made it my mission to find some replacements. I couldn't find the right ones, but thought (hoped!) that traditional t-balls (which are lighter/spongier than baseballs) would work. I found a bag of them at the store. While we were looking, Nikos saw the selection of gloves and told me that he really, really needed one to play baseball. There was exactly one tiny little t-ball glove left and, coincidentally, it was meant for a left-handed thrower. I took that as a sign that our little lefty needed the glove, and got it for him. And he hasn't let it out of his sight since! It eats dinner with him, watches TV with him, and sleeps with him. He even sets it on the bathroom floor when he has to go potty, haha! The boy LOVES his baseball mitt!

What this means, though, is that we have been playing baseball in the backyard every waking moment. Sometimes, he has me pitch to him and he bats-- not badly, either! When this happens, Maya likes to put on the glove and field the balls. And other times, we just play catch. The glove is still a little bit big for him, but he's really getting the hang of it. Who knows-- maybe we really do have a little baseball player on our hands??

At any rate, he's really enjoying it, and it will be fun to watch him improve. In the meantime, I need to find MY old glove, which is buried somewhere in the garage. I guess I'll find it when we move!

Anyhow... here are a few pics from last night and today. Yup, it's all baseball, all the time. Funny kids!


And, before I forget... An update on our paci-free household! Maya woke up this morning at her usual time, as happy as ever (that's our girl-- always happy in the morning). I heaved a huge sigh of relief, thinking I had made it through the worst of it. Ha! Of course not. Naptime was miserable. Every time I laid her down, she would start wailing that she NEEDED her paci. She was fine the rest of the day. Not a mention of it! But naptime didn't happen. She would not calm down enough to fall asleep, so I gave up after a while and just brought her back out. She was fine the rest of the day. In fact, she ran around like a wild child until about two minutes before "The Lion King" ended-- and then she just fell asleep, haha! So tonight was easy. Here's hoping that tomorrow's nap is a little more successful!