Nolan's Spring Training

As each of our three children hit 5-years old we would sign them up for the tee-ball league, often volunteering to coach one of the teams ourselves, then spend a season of agony! Most of the kids (not ours of course!) had no concept of how to play the most basic game of baseball. Most of the kids couldn't hit a ball off a tee to save their lives - heck most of the kids couldn't even keep their hats on or stand in the outfield without sitting down to pick dandelions!

But our little Nolan doesn't seem to be heading down that path at all. We bought him this little baseball tee set and he can already whack that ball a fair distance. And although he does occasionally hit the tee - he's only 2-1/2 years old - just imagine what he'll be like when he turns five! He carries the name of a pretty famous baseball player, but it's a name our daughter-in-law chose - I'm not sure she even knew the baseball connection. But I can see the drive in Nolan. He's so much like his father: our son who never met a sport he didn't like.

For Easter Nolan got a tiny leather baseball mitt and the other day when he came over he brought it with him.  He shuffled through the stack of our old mitts that Tom had unearthed from the closet and found one he thought would work for me - then out we went to play catch. To be perfectly honest, I never once played catch with any of my own kids, but now that I'm a grandma, here I stand in the yard giving catching hints to a preschooler. "Keep your mitt down, keep your eye on the ball!"

He's losing any traces of the baby that he used to be such a short time ago. But that's okay, because I'm enjoying each step of him along the way. It won't be long before we're in the bleachers again!