“Hey Daddy!  We’re gonna go get a football glove tonight, right?”

As the weather gets nicer and nicer, we’ve been talking more and more about t-ball.  We signed Ezra up through a local church earlier this year and had our informational meeting this week.  He’s on the Giants team with 8 other kids, and he’s legitimately excited.

It will be his first ever experience with team sports.

In Ezra’s nearly 5 years of existence, convincing him to do anything sports-related (throw a football, shoot baskets, kick a soccer ball) has been tough…he’s just not that into it.  But bump some music, and the kid will bust a move, do a rock-show, and throw down on the drums for ya in a heartbeat.

So the fact that he’s super excited about t-ball is really encouraging to me.  He ran around the store tonight in complete elation.  If he had gotten what he wanted, he’d have spent over 200 bucks in baseball gear.  He wanted everything baseball, from a catcher’s mit and gear to a batting helmet.  He scored the essentials: one ball, one glove, one bat and one pair of cleats and he was so excited, dancing in the checkout line.

(Tangent: This all reminds me a whole lot of little league when I was growing up.  I so completely remember the fear that set in on every single pitch…turns out little league pitchers don’t know how to pitch to left-handed batters.  I rarely had the chance to hit the ball because the ball was normally hitting me.)

Ezra and I attempted pitch and catch outside for a few minutes before bedtime tonight.  He has a fairly good throw, he hit the first pitch, and he even fielded some ground balls.  He also wanted to sword fight with his bat, ran around in circles, and shook his booty while I tried to teach him a proper batting stance. (The Giants have no idea what they’ve just gotten themselves into.)

We’ve got a ways to go, but we’re having a good time on the way.  I’m not planning on raising a Pujols, I just want my kid to have a good time this summer, making new friends, learning new stuff.  Ezra asked me tonight on the way out of the store, “Daddy, are you gonna cheer for me, cause I’m not very good yet.”  I said, “Oh, bubba, I’m gonna cheer for you no matter what…when you’re good and when you’re not really good.”

Ezra will be 5 in a week and a half.  He’s doing so many big boy things…practicing without training wheels on his bike, doing a couple of full-days at preschool, dialoguing more like a big kid than a little boy.  He’s growing fast…way too fast.

And no matter what, this daddy is gonna be cheering his cool kid on…no matter what.