Play Ball!

I signed the girls up for tee ball (t-ball?) this month so they could try it out, and man...talk about some serious cuteness!  It's an ages 3-5 class, so they're in the same group, and Keira's probably the oldest or close to it.  She's such a sweet big sister, and does a great job of showing Ellie where to run the bases and yelling, "Over here, Ells!" when Ellie runs off in some random direction.  I love hearing her proudly tell the coaches, "That's my little sister" and seeing her cheer like an absolute crazy person, whenever Ellie hits the ball. 

Ellie is good for about 10 minutes of practice before she's ready to lounge about in the grass by us and have a snack whilst the other kids do their thing.  In her defense, it is a HUGE park, and they do a TON of running: they practice running around the bases 3 or 4 times, then practice throwing by each throwing a ball as far as they can, running to get it, and then throwing it in the same direction again, until they're all the way across the park...and then they do the same thing on the way back.  Ellie is a small human, people.  She has teeny little legs and teeny little arms.  She is just plain worn out after that!  By the time they divide up and start playing an actual game of tee-ball, she's ready for a nap.  (Ellie's Uncle Ryan played tee ball the same way and could often be found sitting out in left field picking grass.  It must be a family trait.)

For us Bears, the best part is watching Ellie's little curls bounce around as she runs, and seeing Keira demonstrate some genuine athletic skillz (which she most certainly did not inherit from me) in addition to her usual adorable antics.  Oh, and "baseball stance." 

I defy anyone to find anything more adorable than toddlers crouching on a field, hands on their knees, swaying back and forth and looking totally ready to...uh...watch the ball roll through their legs as they bend over so far they fall on their little heads. Oh, and the hats. We got them little Dodgers hats to wear. Okay, it's all cute. It's a regular cute-fest, OK?

Experience "baseball stance" for yourself (and hear the parents all chuckling at the spectacle):

Here's a video of Ellie getting a hit and then getting lost:

And here she is, "fielding" a ground ball and then getting so freaking excited about it that she forgets to do anything else for a while:

Here's Kiwi, hitting an inside-the-park home run!  (I must admit that practically every hit in this game is an inside-the-park home run, on account of the fact that none of them know how to field a ball, or where to throw/bring the ball once they finally track it down.  Kiwi is, however, a reeeally fast runner and a pretty good hitter for her age!)

This is just a parks and rec class, not a league with actual practices and games, so we'll see if Kiwi wants to do something a little more competitive later on.  For now, the girls seem to be having fun, and I'm enjoying the photo ops, which (like in gymnastics) are practically worth the registration price alone!