Take me out to the ball game…

Some children are born with an attention span for books, puzzles, characters, etc. My son, however, has a love…maybe love isn’t the right word, passion for baseball. Yes, he likes to play baseball. Yes, he likes to watch baseball. Yes, he likes to know the baseball players. It’s never-ending.

The other day we went to this outing with the park district where there were a variety of activities. They had sidewalk chalk, painting bags, face painting, decorating fans, and safety town with bikes. On the baseball diamond though was kickball. Kickball oddly resembled baseball but kicking was allowed. Hm….sounded interesting…

Drew waited very patiently for his turn at this kickball thing. I was so nervous because the majority of the kids were 8, give or take a couple of years, and were playing a more serious game of kickball. Once I saw my little three year old run up and kick the ball, I knew it was over. He was hooked! It didn’t matter how many times I tried to bribe him to get off the field, he was going to stay playing kickball for as long as they’d let him.

The thing about Drew playing kickball was that he played his own game inside the existing game. For instance, who knew that a catcher was needed at the pitcher’s mound?!

Then there was the matter of pitching. Drew nudged his way into pitching but it wouldn’t quite make it to the kicker so it needed some help along the way. And then when it came time for fielding, it occasionally required running the bases which weren’t actually the baseball diamond bases, rather the bases that Drew made up in his mind.

Every few minutes he’d run back to the dugout for a water break (a short one because the team really needed him) and he’d ask Gabby every time how he was playing. “Am I playing good, Gabby?”

At the end of the game, Drew’s cheeks were red from playing so hard, Gabby was hoarse from cheering, and my sides hurt from laughing. All-in-all I’d say it was a pretty exciting day at the ballpark!