The older kids are still going strong with their sports (another week of baseball for Nathan and two of softball for Zoey). Allison’s season was finished almost before it even really began. She was super excited that this year she would get to join in and play sports just like her siblings. She picked out pink everything; helmet, bat, shorts, and shoes. Adorable. I know.
We showed up to the first practice and it was a madhouse. Girls were wandering around not sure what to do, half of them were too shy to talk to the others, the practice went longer than it should so most of them were tired. After about 30 minutes Allison decided that she was done. Practice was boring and she wasn’t having any fun. We decided to just chalk it up to Alli being tired and first time coaches who were not really sure how to handle that many five year old girls.
The next practice would be better, we hoped. Allison found out that she loves running the bases. She could also hit the ball farther then almost every other girl on her team. Not too bad! She enjoyed practice more, but it was still unorganized and she was always ready to leave after about 20 minutes. She went back and forth between liking and just not wanting to be there. It did not help that the whole season we had to remind the coach that she plays left-handed. You would think after 3 months of practices and games this wouldn’t have been necessary.
Every practice and every game she would teeter totter. We gradually stopped going to practices and games. She is still pretty young. We didn’t want to force her to play if she was not having fun. We feared she end up hating sports later in life because of it. When scheduling conflicts with Nathan and Zoey’s games kept her from playing the last two games, she did not mind at all, “Yes! I am done!”.
The last game she got to play, she had a blast. For part of the game, she played catcher, just like her brother. She liked it more because she got to be a part of every play. Carefully putting the ball back on the tee for the next batter. We’ll see how she feels about it next year.
I remember they went through the same thing with Thomas, J’s youngest. One time Randy caught Thomas zipping himself up in one of those huge gear bags hanging on the fence during the middle of a game. He stopped for a year, but now he loves it. I think there’s something to be said about being the right age for these things. I love that last picture of her flinging off her helmet.
Cindy´s last blog post..THANKFUL FRIDAY: BOING
She’s so cute and so big.