Batta, Batta, Batta, Batta!!!!!!!!!!!

Stanch. Feet planted side by side, body squared off to the home plate, hand over hand grips on the baseball bat, she concentrates. The lime green tennis ball sits atop the tee. Elbows up, grip firm, she swings the small bat as she locks her elbows to keep the swing straight above the plate. A few on the tee and then it was free pitching to her. Hit and miss and more instructions, she started connecting with more then she missed.

More practice today is scheduled for Carrie. For the first 30 minutes, Carrie is into it. She follows instructions doled out by her sister and brother. Soon the instructions become too involved and her interest wans. The little black puppy has distracted her. She giggles as he nips at her heels and she drops her bat to stoop down to pick him up. We postpone this training session to be continued later in the day.

You can only capture a 5yr. old's attention for a short while. The key is to maintain a lot of patience and breaks.

We petted the puppy then moved to the swing set. "Push me harder." She squealed with laughter as she felt my hand in the small of her back following through on the forward motion of the swing. Somewhere among the pushing I noticed that she was pumping her legs. I sat down on the steps of the ladder attached to the slide and encouraged her to do some of the action it took to keep that swing moving.

Carrie was outstanding in her performance on the ball field this afternoon. She had lost that confused look from the previous game. She strode up to the home plate, squared off and as the pitcher sailed a ball over home plate, she swung her bat and connected. It took a few seconds for her to remember to run. Our screams in the background helped. "Run, Carrie, Run!" and she was off.

She isn't spontaneous yet on the running but the lapse time has been considerably shortened. She grinned as she made all the bases and tagged home plate. She was having a good time and though we wanted her to understand the game, seeing her enjoying herself is most important.

From where I sat, I could see her hand moving across her face. She began fanning  herself with her hands and called to the coach "You know I'm sweatin over here?" Carrie will never be accused of being hesitant about voicing her feelings.


Her outfield performance has greatly changed. She faces in the correct direction now and keeps her eye on the batter and the ball. The few times the little guys were able to get it to the outfield, Carrie ran over and picked it up. She clutched it to her chest. We'll have to work on teaching her to send it to first base instead of carrying it around with her.

A lot to learn, this game of baseball. Practice and  patience.

I'm off to bed. The Prince is getting married in a few hours.  I doubt that I will be awake at 0400 to watch the ceremony. I plan on catching the rerun.