101: Yay! Baseball!

Lex had his first t-ball practice today. This is pretty much what he looked like the whole time he was out in the field.

There was also some tumbling, shadow boxing, a sit-down conversation with his friend he hadn't seen since he left Headstart last year, and when he got bored he'd see how high he could throw his mitt in the air and still catch it.

There were also some conversations about who'd play "first place" and whose turn it was to play "fourth base."

I'd forgotten how entertaining these tiny little ball players are. 

100: pretty nice backdrop for an evening softball game

99: Signing up for Kindergarten!

Lex is all registered for kindergarten. He was a little annoyed when we got there because it was clearly "Zoran's school" and I guess he wanted his own school. He did get over it pretty quickly when he discovered a whole wall of presidents when he walked in. He picked out his favorites on the wall and then was ready to go check out the computer lab. I guess he figured he could hang out with people who were both fond of presidents and had a whole room of computers. He also found a couple boys he knew, pictures of himself already on the wall, and a desk to hide under (?) so I guess he's all set.

He did great on their little preliminary testing,  which is probably partially the result of having a teacher who told him before we left his preschool that afternoon he needed to do his best and show them how smart he was and who has been working on all the math and letters and sounds they asked him about all year. (I'm pretty sure just a few years ago they were actually teaching all this counting and number, letter, and sound recognition once they got to kindergarten, not assessing what percentage of that they already knew before starting to make sure they were ready?!)

Lex did misidentify a lower case l as an I. Israel doesn't look much different than lsrael to me either, so I may not also be ready for kindergarten. The only other thing he didn't get right was one rhyming question. There were a few pages of pictures where the kids had to pull out the two things in each line that rhymed. Lex got them all right but one where he picked a fork and a plate. I asked him if he forgot he was rhyming and just picked things that went together instead, and he said yeah, after all those questions he got hungry.

Sounds like a pretty good kindergarten answer. He's probably ready. 

98: ninja. monkey

Lex was actually dressed quite normally when he got home from school. He wanted to go to softball practice with Azia so he went and changed into this tye-dyed shirt, skull long johns, vest, and cowboy boots look. I asked him why he was dressed like that when he came out of his room and he just looked at me and explained, "Because I'm a ninja." (I'm sure "ninja" is exactly what everyone who saw him later thought was going on with his outfit.)

As I was gathering things up and getting everyone in the car, I took Lex's lunchbox out of his backpack and asked him why he didn't eat any of his carrots.

"I don't eat those things."

"What do you eat?" I asked, a little exasperated, because he often seems to eat none of his lunch, but instead rips up the sandwich and dumps the yogurt inside his lunch box.

"I ate the banana." (Which was true, at least today.)

"I do eat bananas. You should know that. I'm not a rabbit. I'm a monkey. And I'm ninja.  Let's go."

97: Spring at the Bison Range

96: Game Time!

Home Run!!!

Azia's team is off to a good start. They're doing great for such a young team and the girls really seem to be having fun. They had their first game Friday and ended up losing by just two points. Azia pitched the whole game and did really well. She had a few strike outs every inning– a couple innings she had all three outs. The team was starting to figure out the defense end of the game, but no one on the team was hitting.

In today's game they all were hitting! They played a Ronan team that was just as little and inexperienced as ours, so they didn't field a lot of hits. We did have a couple girls get their first hits of the season, though. (Or ever!) Ronan got a few hits too, but no one ever scored and the Mission girls scored a whole lot of runs.

Azia had a great batting night. She hit a triple her first time up. The second time up she got a home run. Home runs are always cool, but I think it's even a little cooler when there's no errors on the other team involved. The ball was still out in the outfield as she was rounding third.

Now hopefully one of these games soon they'll be able to put the offense & defense together in one game!