Seven: Hayden starts T-ball

This spring, I gave Hayden the option to play Tball or Soccer. She is 5 now so she doesn't have to play Mighty Mites anymore, which is kind of like a skills and drills free-for-all league. They have a 30 min. practice and then their game is right after that practice. It was great in that aspect. I didn't have to carve out another night of the week for a practice.

This year, is the big stuff. They have practices during the week, games that aren't at the crack of dawn on Saturdays (instead we get the crack of HOT) Not sure which I'd rather. Anyway, the first practice was so funny. Hayden has never played tball before, so for Valentines day we got her a little T to start practicing on. She did awesome and we discovered that she naturally felt comfortable hitting left handed. She writes right-handed, but we have noticed several things during her life that she did left handed.

We bought her a glove a couple of years ago and it has pretty much just sat in her room and gone unused. So for the first practice we were all psyched. Especially me. I grew up playing softball and had so much fun. Definitely my favorite sport, along with track. So naturally, I had hoped that she would one day follow in my footsteps and want to play.

A couple of hours before the practice Hayden started getting antsy and wanted to go ahead and get dressed. So she put on a girly baseball tshirt that was a hand-me-down from cousin Chloe. She had also sent some high top cleats. I rummaged through my old socks and found a pair that must not have ever been used when I was playing because they were stark white. So she suited up and then paced around waiting and waiting.

Finally it was time to go. The practice went good. Several of the kiddos were lined up throwing back and forth when we arrived and Hayden found a little boy to throw with and they started throwing the ball and trying to catch it. Neither one of them were doing very well at aiming or catching but they sure looked like they were having fun. I began to notice that Hayden was throwing "like a girl". This surprised me because when we had practiced throwing balls at home I had never realized this before. She always seemed to have a natural athletic throw. Hmmm .... so I kept watching and then started wondering...maybe she needs to throw with her left hand too?? When we bought her the glove, she had been coloring with her right hand so naturally I thought she was right handed. She had never used the glove really and so I started thinking, maybe when we throw at home, she has been using her left hand?!

I called BJ and asked him what he thought and we couldn't decide for sure if we knew if she threw right-handed or left-handed. While I was on the phone, I look up and realize Hayden has taken her glove off her left hand, shoved it on her right hand upside down and is now throwing "non girly" with her left hand. Poor girl! Parents don't even know what hand she throws with. She started throwing alot better after that and even caught a few.

Then on to batting. She was first up to bat and on her first swing hit the ball into right field. :D THAT's MY GIRL!!!! She hit several times and did well each time. At the end of the practice they all huddled up to do a team cheer. We didn't know what team she was on yet or what color they were. Usually they assign professional team names to the teams. So they broke the huddle and Hayden turns and runs as fast as she can, screaming all the way to me, "MOM!!!! I'm on the OREOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

(Baltimore Orioles, but Oreos sounds so much fun-ner ;)