Wardrobe Function

Justin - "Why's Zoë not wearing the dress she wore this morning?"
Bonny - "It got wet."
Justin - "Oh."

Justin - "Zoë, you get to wear this dress. Oh, it's not a dress, is it? It's some dress pants thing."
Bonny - "It's the same thing that all of her outfits should be."
Justin - "A straightjacket?"
Bonny - "Exactly."

Pike to Eel

Zoë had her last swim lesson of the season. She's graduated Pike and next time will be an Eel. She's at the "she can probably get herself out of the water, if she falls in and doesn't get distracted" level of swimming. Knowing how Zoë gets distracted, that basically means she's a goner. That's okay. She should be able to actually swim after Eel.

Color

I was more distracted this game. We had more horseplay and general unhappiness. Mainly, this was because we had to show up 75 minutes early for pictures. The kids played afterward and were beat come game time.

Jason's first inning hit was a grounder about half way between short stop and second base. Jason ran to second by mistake. Second inning he hit a short pop that landed just inside the infield, pretty well straight to the second baseman. He ran to first, this time. Jason had one fielding attempt. He was shortstop, but was a little slow to react. So, he and the "short" shortstop (remember there are three kids between each base) collided pretty hard both getting to the ball at the same time. Jason came up with some grass stains and christened his uniform. (I actually just paused, in the middle of this, to pre-treat them. Have to look pristine for next game. Like he cares.) So, he's a "real" ball player now.

Stats

        Inning:   1    2   F
Mets    (away):  11   11  22
Pirates (home):  11   11  22


       AB  AVG  SLG  S  D  T HR Games
Jason   4 1000 1000  4  0  0  0   2

T-ball Cuteness

The Little Swimmer

Zoë has a quite modest swimsuit. It's a wetsuit, I suppose. It's orange and pink. At the least, Zoë believes wearing it gives her the ability to swim. At the most, she thinks it makes her into an orange and pink mermaid. She's had six swimming lessons so far. She loves them, but isn't crazy about jumping such that her head goes underwater.

This is what she has to say on the subject:

"I think I want to stay in the swimming. They tell me to get down at the swimming and to get out at the swimming. They tell me to get out and I'm the first one out. Then I get back in. You have to see it."

So, there you go.

-Justin

The Rules

Now, to begin with, the umpire didn't know the rules. We'd been practicing throwing to first. The umpire said they kids had to run to first. Now, Stan says, at that age, it's a more sound strategy, but I don't want to teach them the wrong way. Anyhow, for each subsequent game, they will be allowed to throw. Also, for this first game, parents could be in the infield with the defensive team. Each subsequent game, after putting the kids in the right spot, the parents will have to go to the outfield.

Best I can tell, the rules are these. There are two innings. Every kid bats once an inning. There are two kinds of hits. If it's hit in the infield, it's a single. If it's hit to the outfield, it's a home run. Every kid scores, and the last batter of each half inning is an automatic home run. So, eleven kids on each team, each kid scores twice, the game ends 22 to 22. There are no outs. For the offensive team, you can have one parent at each base. The second base "coach" will be allowed in the infield to retrieve wayward kids. (My job is, apparently, to get the batters ready and in order; dugout work.)

That said; the Pirates (Jason's team) did really well. They were definitely the more experienced team and had better discipline. All of our kids actually ran the bases. (Well, one didn't, but in his defense, he probably had a stomach bug. He threw up several times.)

Jason had two strikes and two nice hits. The first one was a pop up in between the shortstop and the second baseman, just past second base. (I know what you're thinking. "Justin, you said that was a home run, but you have Jason marked as two singles." True, but one of the parents on the other team knocked it back into the infield. That's something else that won't be allowed in subsequent games.) The second hit was a grounder over the mound and stopped just short of second base. A quite solid single. Defensively, no balls came near Jason in the first. In the bottom of the second, Jason was getting tired. He was playing first, and completely didn't see the ball. The second second baseman got it. I helped him refocus and the last hit of the game came up the first base line. (It was actually foul, but if it's within a few feet they don't call it.) Jason got it and tagged the bag before the runner got there. So, one "out" for him.

Third to last hit of the game, our team had a pileup. Two kids fell over both trying to get the ball. They looked to be wrestling a bit. Gavin thought that looked like good fun and did a clothesline take down of the two kneeling fielders.

I'm probably not suppose to count, but all in all our team got 11 outs and theirs got 8.

I'll try and get Bonny to post some pics of him in his uniform. It's crazy cute, I'm told. I think she got an action pick, too.

-Justin

Jason's First T-Ball Game

        Inning:   1 |   2 |  F |
Rangers (home):  11 |  11 | 22 |
Pirates (away):  11 |  11 | 22 |


      AB  AVG  SLG  S  D  T HR Games
Jason  2 1000 1000  2  0  0  0   1

Details tomorrow.

-Justin

Athletic Achievement

Jason hit his first hole in one on hole six of the minigolf course, at The Villages resort, in Flint, TX.

-J

Yes! All on his own!

He was at the tee, hit it, bounced off the back wall and in. I'm not claiming he's a prodigy. He hit about eight over par on average.

Magic Monsters and Aliens

We just put the Mosters vs Aliens movie, Jason bought, into the PS2 and it's playing in English. It still has Spanish subtitles and I think the title was in Russian, but the point is, we're not stuck with an only Spanish speaking movie.

...

Although, I think I was learning el Espanyol.

-J

Baseball Postponed

Jason's Tee-Ball season got postponed a week because of Fort Worth ISD closing because of swine flu. Well, Jason knew that he was starting baseball when Zoë started swimming and she had her first lesson yesterday. Bonny and Jason were spectating this week, but Zoë goes solo after that. Here's a conversation at the sideline.

Jason - "Zoë's swimming and I play baseball."
Bonny - "Well, you don't get to start baseball yet. They are going to wait a bit because some people are sick."
Jason - "Are they sick of the pigs?"

-J