Baseballers

It's like I'm living in a constant state of Deja-vu. Last summer, my oldest daughter Carrie started to fall in love with baseball. She got her baseball uniform and wore it to bed every night. She wore it for chores. She wore it as her normal clothes. When we were choosing a topic for a writing assignment, she chose "How to throw a baseball." She had a coach who was full of tricks to remember how to do everything. He was overflowing with sayings, analogies, imagery, catchy phrases, encouragement. He's the kind of coach that tries hard to pass on his absolute love of the game without putting a heap of pressure on the young players. That's hard though when you are so intense about every aspect of the game. Curt got a kick out of this exchange at the last practice: The coach was giving the kids a pep talk about learning to pitch for each other. "It would be good if everyone would try pitching, but you don't have to do it if you don't want to." Out of the group of children a hand shot up. "I don't want to. I won't be any good." The coach, forgetting that he just said it was okay if you didn't want to, bellowed out. "Now there's NO EXCUSE for that kind of attitude!!" :) This year, on the night she was going to be handed her new uniform Carrie came bounding into the kitchen with Robin and Ellie who will also be playing this summer. "Mom!! Tonight is the night we're going to be getting our new pyjamas!" "What?" "Our baseball uniforms mom!" When they got home Carrie and Robin were bubbling over. Ellie, 6 was devastated. "Mom, my uniform is too big for me and they don't have any littler ones." We gathered up her uniform and washed it at high heat and to her jubilation it fit a little better by morning. She still runs while holding onto the back of her pants, but it's the best we can do for right now. I have 3 little addicts now. The two younger ones haven't had a practice yet but have been wearing their uniforms quite a bit regardless. Carrie comes home from every practice or game to call her Grampsie in Victoria and tell him about every play that was made and every new trick she has learned. She is also full of advice for everyone lately: "Well, It's like my coach always says. You gotta face your fears." or "Well, It's like my coach always says, you shouldn't waste your arms."...not sure how that last one applies to real life unless she is trying to get out of chores, but she used it today on Darren for some reason. It's fun to see my kids get excited about something they love. Such a wave of comic relief over these past couple months that have seemed so heavy. All the tests for Sadie so far came back clear and yet she is still not gaining her weight back. Her appetite is nil but her water intake is forcibly back to "normal". Her little feet are dry and cracked and she complains of thirst all day. I'm praying that will lessen as this month wears on and *hopefully* her own hormones kick into gear again. She is praying every night for her "fatness and shubbies" (Chubbies) to come back and is trying to adhere to my calorie boosting diet. Can't wait for health to be restored completely. No clear answers as to why this happened with her but I'm sure the 14 day flu had some part to play in knocking her hormones/electrolytes way off kilter. Praying for her to reach 30 lbs again which was her weight pre-flu. Thanks to those of you who are praying with us.