Tee Ball

The Boy and The Girl are both playing in the Avondale Park (satellite)-Athletic Field Park's Tee Ball league this spring. The Boy is somewhat into t-ball, at least in theory. He can throw a bit, and sort of catch, and he went through a heck of a lot of drills the few times we made it to the serious, no-parents-allowed, learn-to-play-t-ball clinic at Horner Park during the winter session. The Girl, OTOH, is totally confused. She likes the running the bases part, but generally singsongs in the outfield, or plays in the dirt with her friend Peri or Kathy, another little 3-y/o teammate.

The league is incredibly cheap, which means that it's basically run by parent volunteers, with a few pointers from the park district coaches and a bag of loaner equipment from the same. Our team, the Giants, is lucky enough to have several dad-volunteers to run drills and organize practices. They're pretty good at it! I'll admit that except for the availability of the dads, the timing of it all -- 5:15 - 6:15 p.m. -- is pretty crummy for the 3-5-year-old set. We practice on Tuesdays and play games on Thursdays. My two have yet to make a game, either due to rain or laziness on my part.

However, it is rather fun to see all the different teams practicing along the perimeter of the park, figuring out how this baseball thing really works (or just having fun running circles in the dirt). Jessica's son is in the same league, and as I took The Girl to the bathroom, I saw her, standing in the dirt and yelling plays to Lil E and her team. Cool.

Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day, we did nearly all of our errands on foot today. The Boy came home from school yesterday with a fever, so he stayed "home" an extra day to ensure that he was sufficiently recovered. A little sunshine (such as it was) and fresh air certainly can speed that process, too.

In the morning, we loaded up the stroller and walked in a large loop to the dry cleaner, post office, and CVS. Our local post office, the Daniel J. Dolyn station, has gotten a facelift since I was last there. The clerk helping me was still a curmudgeon, but the office itself looks nicer. I prefer to use the automated postal centers whenever possible, but they are not set up to accept media mail, and I was mailing a book to my sister-in-law in Seattle. In October, The Boy, The Girl, and The Baby are getting a new cousin!

I had prescriptions to fill at CVS and after 2 hours of pushing around the e3, I was ready for lunch and a nap. Unfortunately, the only person who got a nap was The Baby. The rest of us waited out the rain-that-wasn't as slugs on the couch.

When The Baby woke up, we loaded back into the stroller and up to McDonald's to meet our friends for a quick pre-teeball dinner, and then over to Athletic Field Park for teeball practice. I never really played softball as a kid (my mother was pretty flaky about park district sign-ups when I was a child), but I found myself itching to get a mitt and get out on the field during today's practice. Instead, I played in the dirt with Kathy, the younger sister of one of the kids' teammates -- until she and The Girl dumped themselves behind first base to do the same -- and tried to keep The Baby from grabbing the ball off the tee. The Dad met us and walked us home.

After the kids were in bed, I ran errands by myself in the car: Cost Plus for wine, Whole Foods for yogurt, and Border's for a parenting book. Being able to concentrate on a single task without interruption for 20 minutes at a time while shopping was hugely revitalizing.