It's Wee Ball Time in Tennessee!

As recently as about 2 months ago, Cooper was going to be signed up for soccer this spring. It made the most sense. I'm not playing tennis right now and Chip misses soccer almost enough to offer to help coach the little ones. Then one day we got a call from one of Cooper's best friend's dad asking if Cooper would like to play tee ball this spring (or, "Wee Ball" as its called in the Alcoa Youth Baseball League). Neither Chip nor I really cared what sport our kids play at the ripe old age of 4 years, so a "sure, why not" it was! While at sign-ups, we went ahead and signed Kendall up, too. Why not kill two birds with one stone while we can? Also at sign-ups, Chip confessed to actually praying that we were not the Mets (don't worry, we're the Braves).

So, the day before our first practice, I dug their baseball gloves out from the bottom of the toy bin in the garage. We already have a tee, a foam Nerf bat (which is all we need, right? I mean, he's FOUR), and a bag full of tee balls (seriously, there's a difference????) from our sweet neighbor, Nathan. We've been practicing for close to a year, for no other reason than it's fun to do in our front yard.

SO! We dusted off the gloves, threw them in the car and off we went to practice in jeans, sweats and not so much as a potty break (that was all foreshadowing, in case you're wondering).

The Team Huddle. Notice the cleats. Champion, Adidas, Nike...they're all there. Not pictured are all of the bat bags (yes, BAT BAGS), several pairs of real baseball pants, personalized batting helmets and bats. Personal bats. Like, they brought their own aluminum bats. To tee ball.

As reigning Parents of the Year, we felt that it would be both indulgent and without purpose to buy such material things for our children. (Hopefully you read my sarcasm.) I'm not sure what was being said here, but I think the question from the Coach was: "Where do we run after you hit the ball?" Naturally, the kids all point in the direction of a base. Any base. Sweet Gracie says "we run to first PLace!" I suppose if you get there before the defender, it is, technically, "first place." Cooper drew the admiration of many with his hitting. However, this was after his 6 "warm-up" swings, as Drew's Daddy so nicely put it. Kendall is clearly thinking she can hit it better with her eyes shut. And, obviously she would be correct.
Look at that form! However, the ball only went a few feet further than shown. Had he been wearing some Adidas baseball cleats, however, it would have made it straight to home plate.

We really, really, really should have taken a potty break before we got to practice. I'm confident that next week we'll be ready to really show our stuff, with new cleats, empty bladders, and who knows what else...