Spring Sports

It's that time of year, spring has sprung and all of the little boys and girls are gearing up for spring sports.  (that's a lot of sp words)
 
This year I decided to sign the boys up for T-ball and after two practices I think it's going to be very interesting.
 
William's first practice was on Wednesday and he loved it!  He's playing on a team with 3 and 4 year olds so you can imagine some of the chaos.  Some kids screaming because they don't want to go anywhere near the field, some kids crying because it's not their turn yet, some kids crying because they didn't get the ball, some kids meandering around in the outfield picking daisies, some kids dragging their feet through the dust creating quite a storm and some kids doing all of the above in rounds.  Interesting.  I can say it's a relief to have a  4 year old who wants to play and has a smidge of control over his emotions, all excitement and no crying.  We'll see if that lasts.

Another note on William, up until now he has always been somewhat of an aggressive kid.  You know the one, the one on the playground tackling the other little kids, hitting, bumping, causing lots of tears.  He's not mean, he just doesn't understand he's hurting them.  I tried to teach him to be a "gentle giant" (he's a big boy) but to no avail.  And then he turned 4.  I have long said 4 is a turning point, and a good one at that.  Both of my boys were terrible at 2, but in a "get into everything and never stop moving" way.  Both of my boys were really terribly at 3, in a "get into everything and never stop moving while talking back and saying NO a lot" way.  William was the more challenging of the two by a long shot!  But, 4 is a miracle age.  He's calming down, listening, not so rough (most days) and he's really really funny!  I like this age.  And secretly, as we practiced t-ball the other day, I said a little prayer of thanks because he was so stinkin' good!  I gave him a big hug and said "thank you".  He asked "for what?"  and I said "just for being you and being so good." 

Lewis' first practice was yesterday and he's really excited to play as well.  His team is 5 and 6 year olds, a bit more emotional and physical control with these kids.  I hope this will help build Lewis' confidence and teach him about being on a team.  He tends to get frustrated if he's not good at something, actually he gets frustrated if he feels he's not the best.   I want him to learn to keep going and practicing so I really hope he likes t-ball.  

At the very least it's a chance for each of the boys to hang out with kids their own age and have some fun!  You know how weird homeschooled kids can get.  ;-)

So our spring weeks will be filled with practices - did you notice they're on different days?  William is a Wed/Fri practice and Lewis is a Tue/Thu practice so we'll be headed to the park 4 times a week.  whoa.

Oh, other good news.  Last night Paul was talking with William and practiced and practiced saying "Ls" properly.  You may remember we're trying to get William evaluated for his speech delay with certain letters and sounds?  Well, after about 5 minutes William said "Lewis" with a PERFECT "L" sound!!!!  If you could have seen the look on his face, one proud little boy.  Who needs speech therapy when you have a loving helpful Dad?