Outnumbered Mommy...My Adventures with My Four Little Boys: The Summer of Jack!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

The Summer of Jack!

Last Day of School/9th Birthday Party with 9 of Jack's "nearest and dearest"...and 9 of Drew's...and 9 of Ben's. It was quite a party. You'll have to take my word for it since I didn't take many pictures.

Fun with the cousins. Gotcha Jack!

The #1 Cubs Fan, taking a spot at the inteview table of the Phillies.

And, the #1 Cubs Fan racing against Scotty Podsednik. He definitely looks determined to not be out-raced by a White Sock.

And, here is probably the highlight of Jack's summer.

Jack loves, loves, loves baseball. He watches baseball, talks baseball and plays baseball at every opportunity. This summer, Jack started out the baseball season asking to pitch. Unfortunately, at this level, the mound was located 5 feet further back from where it was last year, which is a REALLY big jump for a guy with a skinny little arm. Everytime Jack asked, he was told that if he wanted to pitch, he would need to practice more. So, Jack would go out in the back yard and throw pitch after pitch into the pitch-back. His hard work finally paid off and he was put in to pitch for an inning in the last game of the season.

Apparently, he wasn't nervous, but *I* was!! I'm fairly certain that "Coach Dad" was a bit nervous too. It wasn't that we didn't think he would do a good job, (of course we thought he would do a good job) it was just that this was soooooo important to him. One good inning would "make the season" for him.

And, that is exactly what we got. No hits, 2 walks, no hit batters, resulting in three outs and no runs scored for Mr. Calm-Cool-Collected. It was a fabulous moment for all of us. :)

Jack also had a very successful swimming season. I'm convinced that it was those daily morning practices that really made a difference in building up his muscles and making him a stronger baseball player...which is what he really wanted anyway.