4 Year Old Baseball

You're thinking, but hey they shouldn't start until kindergarten or until they turn 5. Then you might start thinking we push our kids too young and make them play sport too young. Or you might be thinking that's cool, why didn't I think of it. Well my response is relax, it all about fun.

Seriously there are about 50 4 year olds at this place at one time and its organized chaos. There is not much  you can do with 50, 4 year olds in 45 minutes except introduce them to the sport. So mostly they are learning about baseball right now.

When they first arrived they got divided in two groups of 25 kids. Here is Erik waiting for his turn.

Then they get their first throw, Erik choose to throw underhand for some reason.

Then when we all walked over to our clinic spot, the kids got to run the base for the first time and the coach taught them some of basic concepts of baseball. Most of the kids actually listened and asked questions. Erik even raised his hand, but was never called on.

Then the kids were divided into smaller groups to work on skills. Parent participation was highly recommended at this part because they needed parents to help throw the ball. The goal was to catch and throw, skills that we need to work on still.

 

 

He was wearing his hat really low on his head, not sure but didn't correct him because he just kept putting it back on that way.

I thought Erik wasn't doing well with the "arm stretch throw" technique, but of course when I look at these pictures I realize he was practicing it perfect. In these pictures they were aiming for a target. Of course Erik LOVED it.

Poor Elliot was insanely jealous the entire time and was getting mad at the attention. I should have realized a almost three year old is like that now. I forget he is pretty much a preschooler at this point. He begged me to take a picture and this is for my poor baby who couldn't play baseball and really wanted too.

Erik sat down while the coach was talking, Carl demanded I take this picture. I was going too anyway, pretty cute.

The next clinic was grounders with the alligators arms. Erik was really good at squatting and getting in front of the ball for grounders, but we need to work on alligator arms. No surprise on the form, his mommy is a natural infielder and he does take after me.

It was really important to Carl this day to have the interaction with Erik and play with him. I just wanted to go the first practice to take pictures, but in the future will leave this up to Carl. He was having fun throwing Erik grounders.

 

The last rotation they did was hitting the ball off the tee and Erik did really well here. He can definitely hit he ball off the tee without knocking it over.

The last clinic was the hit the ball and run the bases. Totally a thrill because Erik really just wanted to play a "real" game. Instead of just practicing skills.

The bane of any photographers existence, this kid got right in front of my shot. Doesn't he know there is a mom shooting back here.

 

The sign of a good day is that Erik still hasn't taken off his baseball cap and wanted to play again as soon as he got home. We're definitely on our way to becoming a baseball family.

Just the details

A couple days ago Carl and I were talking and he was complaining of how little I have been updating my pictures and telling stories on my blog. I guess I have been so caught up in making Elliot's book that I just haven't been taking a moment to remember the details of life. I have been shooting all week long and there are so many moments I have captured in my heart, but have failed to share these thoughts. So here are a few of my favorites from this week.

Carl was laying down on the couch with the boys, nothing out of the normal for us, when he said, "Heather take a picture of this." I was a little confused because it doesn't seem that interesting to me. He meant iPhone, but this is what he got. So this first image is dedicated to nightly routines and my dear husband.

Last week we were stuck at home. Poor Erik had a terrible asthma attack Monday night and it was the very first time we thought it was just scary enough that we should take him into the emergency room. We definitely didn't overreact and the ER doctors were just as concerned as Carl and I were. Four hours later and we found out that on top of his asthma attack Erik had a mild case of pneumonia. I kept him home all week but by Thursday the boys were itching to leave the house and go somewhere. I didn't want Erik to exert himself too much so we compromised on storytime at the library. While we were there Erik begged me to get him a chapter book. I thought why not. So we went up to the librarian and asked for a recommendation and she pulled out "Stupid Smelly School Bus" which was unfortunate since we struggle with the word stupid in our house.

Erik couldn't have felt more like a big boy with his big boy book. Interesting enough he always grew board about 3 chapters in and we never really finished the story except one time. He was more interested in pretending to read. He would say, "Elliot let me read to you" and then sit there saying nothing and moving his fingers over the letters in the appropriate way you should read. I returned the book this week and he was sad and begged me for a scary chapter book as a replacement. We'll see.

This image is rather self explanatory. Why bother bringing the car garage to the ground. Its way more fun to play climbing on a table. I asked and he said no.

This week we got two large shipments in and while we were killing time playing around in the morning I decided to make each of the boys forts out of boxes. They each got their own. It ended up "breaking" Elliot and Erik did something to terrorize him/upset him and my awesome idea was a complete flop. They are still around and Elliot still loves hanging out in his cave. It reminds me of when I took the "Raising Boys" workshop and she told us that boys need to hibernate in their caves. 

This week we were at a friend's house and they had a bike without training wheels. Erik tried it and fell, but I happened to catch him the moment before he fell. At least he tried, but I think training wheels are going to stay on for a while for us.

The last thing is the whole reason I could write this blog today. I was at Fry's Electronics and Elliot pointed out Gumby to me while we were in the checkout line. 99% of the time I say no to toys because we have too many and I am trying to stop them from coming in, but this one time I couldn't resist. Its perfect timing because they have been watching a lot of it on youtube. Its fun to watch them be creative with these Gumby characters, but more importantly they have found a way to play nicely together for hours. Worth it just for that.

So there isn't much more than that going on these days. Just the regular everyday stuff, but the details are really the most important since those are what define you.

Mom put this in my book

It should be no surprise to me that Erik is obsessed with photo books. Most days of his life I have a camera out, am looking at pictures or talking about pictures. Its just a HUGE part of our everyday venacular. Let's be honest here, adults and kids alike love looking at pictures of themselves. Clicking through Facebook, looking at blogs or just reliving past vacation, its fun to look at pictures.

These last couple of weeks I have been knee-deep in creating Elliot's photobook. So everyday when we are playing nicely I sneak to my computer and start editing pictures and creating pages for his book. At the end of most days the boys like to sit on my lap and see my creation in process. Erik is a little jealous that right now is Elliot's turn, but he appreciates the memories and hey he is in a lot of the pictures.

In the last couple months I have watched Erik's physical abilities seriously improve. He has confidence and the ability to do things I had no idea he could do and as I watch him do it I get less and less scared by his risks. Honestly I want him to take some of these risk because I know how important it is to his development. Also I have been reading so much lately about how parents are so scared of letting their kids get hurt that we don't let them fall. When these children do fall, its big accidents and they get seriously hurt. So I let my kids fall and get bumped all the time. Of course I warn them, but I want them to learn how to take calculated risk.

This is why when Erik started climbing on top of his swing set this week I didn't stop him. He tried many times to hold the bars and climb across and it just didn't work for him. He doesn't have the strength or coordination yet. So when he figured out he could climb across I was impressed with his problem-solving skills. I will say I held my breath the first time he did this and stood really close to try and catch him if he fell, but I didn't stop him and I let him try. Guess what, he was really good at it.

So today I am sitting on my computer talking to his dad about when he can come home and grill us some steaks when Erik says, "Mom can you take pictures of me climbing across the bars and put it in my 5 year old book." My heart just melted and I immediately posted it as a status.

See this comment says two things to me, my boy loves pictures and his picture books as much as his mommy, but that he knows he accomplished something big and wants to see his work. And you know what, for a not yet 4.5 year old, climbing across those bars is a really big deal to his mommy. Letting him grow up is really hard for me to accept, but I cry and laugh when I see these moments and just let go, hold my breath and wish for the best.

Our last morning living on the beach

The weather hasn't been perfect this vacation, but that's ok. We've made the most of it with hiking, beach walks, shaved ice and morning excursions to different areas of the island. This morning though we realized how little time we actually spent at the beach in our backyard so we decided we were going nowhere. Seriously, the minute I woke up today I put on my swim suit determined to hit the ocean and make the most out of our time here.

We lucked out and the nicest day, or morning, was the morning we decided to spend at the beach. It was a perfect 80 degrees with the sun out and the sun was out most of the time, it never rained and the beach wasn't crowded, it was deserted.  Did I mention we are staying at one of the last undeveloped areas of Oahu, there are no hotels and hardly any tourist and I LOVE it. We couldn't have asked for a better time.

We started off the morning walking on the beach with the boys and just looking at the wildlife. No turtle this morning, we have seen several swimming in the ocean nearby. Then we headed back where Grandma and Grandpa were reading on the beach and had a good old fashioned beach morning.

It started with digging a great big hole with grandpa.

Did I mention that Elliot has been sick this trip, I think he has a sinus infection since he has been sick for almost 3 week straight, and today he was super grumpy at the beach. He specifically asked me to not take pictures of him today. None of my kids have ever said that to me!

Then Carl and Erik played beach ball while everyone watched. After being at this beach house there are two things we are getting for our own house now. A ping pong table and these paddles that include velcro and tennis balls.

Erik dove into the hole and did many army moves that entertained us all. I am shocked that he didn't nap today with how much he moved this morning, but we didn't push it since we have to leave at 5 am tomorrow!!

Elliot finally cheered up and played in the ocean. My favorite moment with him is sitting on my lap while the waved lapped over us and yelling "here comes a big one" giggles galore and so much fun with a two year old, even when the poor guy is sick.

Then grandpa saw me and Erik splashing around and body surfing so he got the bright idea to get the body boards out. It took me a few minutes to realize, duh this is too adorable and I should take pictures instead of body surfing myself. I did enjoy it for a good 10 minutes before I made the switch. We definitely have a future surfer in training. He even did a flip under water and it didn't phase him and he was ready for more.

    

We rounded out the day with shaved ice, ping pong, movies and packing. Seems like a good day to me and makes me what to come here again and again.

Its your birthday what would you do?

The main reason we went to Hawaii was to celebrate Carl's 35th milestone birthday. As far as birthdays goes it not overly major, but important enough to celebrate and have a good time. We told Carl since we were in Hawaii he could choose an activity he wanted and do it for his birthday.

He didn't know what he was going to do until that day and it was a surprise to all of us. The first thing we all did was head on a morning beach walk with the entire family. Elliot is a bit of challenge because he is super fearful of the ocean this trip and we have to carry him the entire walk. My gift to Carl was "forcing" him to be with me instead of his beloved daddy. We had a good time until eventually he went back to his comfort zone with daddy.

Erik built a pirate ship on the shore while he wait for the walk to begin.

The grandparents just held hand and I have no idea what they are talking about. Maybe the fact that they now have a 35 year old!

The only thing that snapped Elliot out of his funk was a pack of three dogs following up along the beach. They were super friendly and sweet and very playful and the only way we got Elliot to touch the sand.

Family pictures...

Then given all the choices of what to do Carl decided to head North and check out Turtle Bay. He was just curious about it. There were no turtles, we weren't at the right spot, but we did hang out at the beach for the resort and it was perfect. Drinks were available, there were free sand toys and Erik spent hours playing with a new friend. The family was so nice and the boys got along so well they begged us to come back the next day, unfortunately I don't think we're going back. I really wish I got their information. The only flaw is that Elliot was sick and coughing like crazy so a near perfect experience.

We rounded out the day by heading to a pizza place and going to the shrimp truck. Pretty much everything Carl did was for someone else. Shrimp for his mommy and pizza for the boys. He told me he wanted to take the least stressful route with the kids, but he's just a softie and can't help himself.