Play ball!

Noah cracks me up with his running commentary while trying to swing. Most of the time he misses, he says, "Oh yeah, I forgot to keep my eye on the ball."  Pretty hard to do when your eyes are shut at impact.

Still, he gamely tries over and over.  When he misses a few in a row, he says he needs to switch positions, and hit it in another direction.  Every once in a while, I caught him aiming in the direction of the house, or the window.

Learning to hit the ball

Noah is super excited for T-ball this summer.  He's mastered nailing the ball off the tee, but yesterday afternoon when he went to play with his neighbor buddy, the older neighbor kid from down the street (Parker) came up and was teaching the boys to hit the ball without the T.  It took Noah several strikes before he finally nailed this one.  

Of course, Parker and I immediately get excited and congratulate him for making contact with the ball.  Noah's response "that was a foul ball".  So funny, he understands the game so well from Wii Sports.  

But, after a little patience he was hitting the ball!

Having a ball

On Sunday, Mandy and I took Noah and his friend to the Royals game.  Weather-wise, it was almost perfect, except for a few sprinkles here and there.  It went much better than last year, when I spent about a third of the game in the bathroom with him and his other friend.  

Noah is more interested in the eating than the game itself.  It held his attention a little longer this year, but not by much.  With all the vendors walking around offering cotton candy, lemonade, shaved ice, peanuts, etc, his head was pretty much on a swivel.  

We watched the game until the 5th inning, then went to the outfield to enjoy the kids' section.  He and Finn raced each other in the base run, rode the merry-go-round and played on the playground.  The wind was whipping so hard out there, it blew huge amounts of water out of the fountains and over the crowd and concessionaires.  Great fun, especially when you're not expecting it.

Eventually we made our way back to the seats for the final innings and then the boys got to run the real bases.  We were taken onto the field from the 3rd base side, walked around the outfield and then ran the bases.

We lost 13-5, so it's not quite your time, Royals. 

Eating a pretzel while enjoying the game.

You can see how well-attended the game was in later innings.

Running the bases

Waiting for dad and mom at home plate

Slugger snuck up behind us.  Both boys got to give him a high-five, but they were too quick for good pitures.

Another snack.  

Dodging the rain.