Carson started baseball practice a couple weeks ago. The night before his first practice, Miles said he would get his bag ready for him after school the next day.
I woke up to find him in the garage washing his old helmet with Clorox wipes. He had set his alarm and gotten up early to do it before school. He was very excited for Carson to start his baseball career.
Carson has been waiting for his turn after many weekends of traveling around and watching Miles' play.
He says he wants to be #18, just like Miles. He wore Miles' old jacket to practice. He looked like he was ready!
He has a lot of friends playing baseball, but there are 6 teams, so his friends seem to be spread out. Thankfully, he had one friend from daycare, Tucker.
His first practice was very interesting. I have never seen Carson so passive. Seeing him in an environment that he didn't seem to be comfortable in was a new experience. He didn't necessarily seem to be uncomfortable or unhappy. He was just very timid. I think his behavior stemmed from not knowing was what going on. He just kind of stood there, and not just because he was taking it in. I would have thought that he would have spoken up more and asked questions, but instead he really just froze until someone noticed that he didn't know what to do. I would guess that half the team has played before and it seemed to understood that all the kids knew what they were doing. It was a little hard to watch. I refrained and just let him find his way. On the way home, he said, "I really wanted to play football, not baseball." I assumed he was just tired. This is what he looked like when I opened the backseat to go inside.
The second practice was no better. I started to ask one of the coach's if he could help him with his stance while they were batting, but instead I text Darrin and told him that he and Miles needed to work with him. After all, coaches can only do so much 1 or 2 hours a week. They tried to work with him that weekend, but he really didn't care.
He was happy about going to the third practice. He got a really good hit! Aside from that, it was more of the same. Lots of kneeling while he was in the field and no effort to run after the ball or anything. It's hard to tell if doesn't care or if just doesn't know what to do. Honestly, it feels like indifference.
This was the mood after practice. On the way home from all three practices, he has said that he wants to play football. I reassured him that it was okay if he didn't like baseball and we could try some new things until he found something he liked.
It's still early, but I'm surprised that he's not loving it. On one hand, I feel so bad for him because it feels like a let down after waiting for his turn. On the other hand, I am so regretful that we signed him up. I am not happy that we have added something to the schedule that didn't have to be there. We didn't let Miles play until he was in kindergarten and that felt like such a good decision. We should have stuck to that decision. We skipped all the playing in the dirt and boredom due to age. Although, who knows if Carson will be anymore engaged a year from now. He's a totally different kid than Miles. He keeps saying that he just wants to play a game, so I am very hopeful that he will like the games more than practice. Here's hoping!
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