First baseball practice

This morning was Miles' first baseball practice.  It was pretty warm already by 9:30am, so the kids were pretty distracted and sweaty. I will try and blame their lack of attention span on the heat, but I'm sure its just the way kids are.
They fielded some grounders, ran some bases, and practiced throwing too.  There wasn't any batting practice at all today.

There was lots of waiting around for your turn too - the group was pretty large!  As mentioned previously, the draft will be on Thursday.  I'm hoping that they'll start practicing as individual teams after that.  His next practice, weather pending, is Friday night at 6pm.  We should find out what team he's on that night too!

All the kids were taking turns throwing at the fence.  Miles threw WILD...  Don't believe me? Watch below. Where's the concentration?

Being a coach for these kids would be tough.  There's a lot of repeating yourself, trying to be encouraging while instructing, restating your demand with different words, trying to give the instruction in another language, and uhm, I mentioned repeating yourself, right??   I think you get the idea. The coach in the video above was amusing.

Some of my favorite quotes from Coach Carlos were:

• Watch where you're walking. These are soft balls, but it's still going to hit you in the head.
• Get your finger out of your nose.
• Stop playing in the dirt
• Pay attention.
• Wake up
• Your glove goes on your hand.
• Lift your other leg. No, the other leg.
• Nice throw. Wait, you have to let go. Try again.

Yes... I'm kind of hoping Miles ends on Coach Carlos's team.  He's a funny guy!


- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Smith Park, Chicago, IL

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Posted in: Baseball,Chicago,Miles,Video

Parents can be Athletic too...

Putting together a couple of blogs for our family goings-on, I realized that the blog has become very Miles-centric.  I love that little man - don't get me wrong!  But why not step out a little to let you know that Nate and I do have active lives that do not involve 4-6 year old athletics! This is a blog about the family, is it not?!

To begin, Nate is studying and taking exams, like-a-boss!
He's been combing through binders of material to review the facts and formulas needed to pass the 7 exams that make up the Architectural Registration Exam for licensure. So far, so good!

Nate's softball league with his co-workers starts up again on June 7th.  He'll play every Thursday, assuming he's not injured or backed-up with a tight deadline at work.  Again, it's an architectural league this year. Local firms put together teams and they play each other for bragging rights.  If there's one thing that I've learned about architects in my long-time relationship with Nate - it's that they prefer to mingle with their own kind! (see bullet point #13 pasted below from "Dating an Architect" by Bob Borson)

• Be prepared for all your new friends to be other architects. Architects lose the ability to speak like regular people because in college, “archispeak” is drilled into their heads like waterboarding. Listen to an architect talk for an evening and I can guarantee that you will hear at least one of the following words:  ”juxtaposition” “axis mundi” “clarity” “truncated” “uniformity” and “composition”.

Can I also add "phenomenological" and "methodologies" ??

Nate's also planning to run a race this summer (Thurs., May 23)! Again, his office a put together a group of active bodies to run in the J.P.Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge! It's a 3.5 mile race.  Miles and I are super excited to cheer him on, even though Nate HATES running!!

I've also signed up for a few races.
Coming up on Saturday, May 25, I'll be running the Soldier Field 10-miler!  I've done it once before, but this  year is super exciting!  It's the 10th anniversary of the race and the shirts are FINALLY ChiBear's colors!

On Sunday, June 23, I will be running in the Chicago Women's Half Marathon. Also, on Saturday, July 27th, I will be running in the BTN BIG10K. Fun, fun!  There are so many other fun races yearning for my attention, but I really need to settle down.

Other than that, our summer will involve weekends to the beaches along Lake Michigan, camping getaways, family time, and far-away family time!  Happy start to your summer!

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Posted in: Baseball,Chicago,Kelly,Nathan,running

Baseball Draft

Miles will have practice for outdoor baseball league on Saturday, May 18th (That's why he's missing soccer)
This is the weekend the kids are 'scouted' for skills.
On Thursday (May 23rd), the coaches will then meet for the draft.

Yes, I said it. Draft!!
There's a little pressure involved in playing well for the coaches so that they can draft him for a team?!?!
He's only 4.  This is a 4-6 year old league.

Of course his father loves this about the league!  He 'knows' his son is a big deal and will be a major contributor to his team. Sometimes, I just don't understand how the male mind works?!?!  Can't we just get together to play baseball and have a little fun?  I've been assured that this process is fun...

A little extra thought about the draft concept and watching a few more soccer games has shown me that a draft is actually a good idea.  They just want to divide up the skill sets of kids evenly so that the games are fun for everyone.  The soccer league divides the kids up lottery-style by age.  Some teams end up running all over other teams.  Even though the league doesn't keep score, many of the kids understand what's going on. I really can't wait to see Miles play baseball as a part of a team!

Again, only time will tell this season.  The games begin June 1 and goes through mid-August.

I'll do my best to remember to take pictures this weekend to let you know what's going on :)

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Posted in: Baseball,Chicago,Miles

Indoor Baseball Finale

I know this is all really old information, but I decided to make it a permanent memory - in the form of this blog post!

I started the story here and am back to finish up the story now that the class has officially ended.
Here's the quick recap and final summary:

We had a hard time enduring a long winter trapped indoors.  Cabin fever hit Miles the hardest, leading to our enrolling him in an indoor baseball clinic with Lil Slugger's Chicago!
The clinic lasted 7 weeks during our low-travel months and took place inside the Windy City Fieldhouse.
Here's a photo/video dump:

Miles LOVED the coaches, the drills, and the skills!

The best part - the medal!!!

I definitely think that we'll try this out again next year!

We even noticed that the fieldhouse holds birthday parties.
Guess who turns 5 this year?!?!

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Posted in: Baseball,Chicago,Miles,Video

Quick Update

This post is just a quick update on what’s been going on.  I know I haven’t posted in a while, but I wanted to let you know that we are alive and well.  Tired, but alive and well!

We’ve been traveling every weekend for the last 7 weekends except for one.  Yes, we are exhausted – but feel accomplished. We’ve seen a lot of people and created some lasting memories.

Even though we are travelling on weekends, we are still trying to get Miles’ T-ball league time in before leaving town.  We recently found out that his league isn’t going to progress beyond a little batting practice and base running. Boo….  I’m not going to feel bad if we miss it anymore.  Miles get more practice in with his dad each night. Time to start looking for a pee-wee baseball league that’s not a part of the parks division.

During the week, we’ve spent our evenings looking at apartments since we hope to move late August.  Our current condo has served us well, but we NEED outdoor space. Miles is far to active to be so far away from a park. We hope to select a new unit within the next week or so!! Then its onto planning the actual move…..

We have LOTS more travel planned in the next few weeks.  I hope to be better about taking photos again so that I can post during the week after our new apartment is selected!

Thanks for your patience throughout this busy summer!

As long as there’s time for baseball, Miles has been GREAT in our crazy season of life. If Miles ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!!

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Posted in: Baseball,Miles,Video

T-ball: Opening Weekend

These pictures will probably be worth millions someday – so bookmark this post!

Miles had his very first T-ball practice last weekend. I see it as a simple beginning to a lucrative career in the MLB. Baseball has grabbed on tightly to Miles’ attention and doesn’t appear to be letting go anytime soon.

The league Miles is a part of is comprised of 3-5 year olds.  It’s obvious that a couple of kids understand a few of the basics, though sadly, a large majority of the kids seemed to have just had their first exposure to the game.

For about 45 minutes, they were shown how to hold a bat, how to swing at a ball sitting on a tee, how to run bases, and shown how to stop/pick-up a ground ball and throw it back to the coach.

The skill range was wide…  I’m still not sure why I’m surprised by that!  This is a 3 year old league! Some parents didn’t know which side of the tee to put their kid on. There seems to be an attitude of letting the parks system teach the sport, rather than parents teaching their kid the sport and letting the team atmosphere and coaches refine the talent. Am I weird in feeling that way? Either way, Miles is very lucky to have such an involved father –and he knows it!

Miles WHACKED the ball off the tee and into the fence, catching the attention of many! Dad was so proud.

Next, the kids ran all the bases,  one kid at a time.  Parent volunteers were requested to stand at each of the bases so that the kids knew where to run and could be directed where to go next. Again, to my surprise, this was a tough task.  A couple little boys wouldn’t even run the bases by themselves. Parents had to run the bases with their kid.  Sorry, I don’t have pictures of this as Nate stood at third base and I stood at first.  Miles had no problem sprinting around the bases on his own; he’s had plenty of practice while camping, in our living room, and following each of Nate’s softball games.

Finally, practice ended with grounders.  The coach would roll the ball to each kid and have them throw it back.  Miles did well. Fielding grounders is not something we’ve done a lot of yet.  After the practice, Nate added to the new skill.  Miles now shuffles his feet to line up with the rolling ball.  His feet no longer cross over one another thereby reducing his potential for tripping.  Go dad (and Miles)! Nate’s trying to make sure Miles is learning each skill correctly so that it doesn’t have to be fixed later :)

Unfortunately, Miles missed T-ball this weekend as we were camping with friends from out of town.  I can testify to the fact that Miles got a lot more practice in than his league’s 45 minute timeslot.  In fact, he even wound down Sunday afternoon watching the White Sox/Brewers game on TV.  This is where he learned that the pitcher carefully peers over his shoulder at a runner on first base who’s trying to steal second.  The pitcher needs to be ready to throw the runner out if he takes off running.  Yes.. you’re right. Miles not only noticed it on TV, he interrogated Nate as to what the pitcher’s purpose was, and spent the next 30+ minutes or so practicing in the living room with “ghost runners”.

Ey, ey, ey!  Baseball is taking over my summer!

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Posted in: Baseball,Chicago,Miles

First Camping trip for 2012

This weekend, we packed up and left the city for a relaxing long weekend away.  Because we waited until the last minute to reserve a spot,  we ended up staying at a “resort” type campground instead of the usual state park.  To be honest, after experiencing both, we still prefer the state park.  We were actually fairly annoyed by all of the resort style bells and whistles.
We built lots of fires and ate most of our meals from a roasting stick.  The same  was true for any dessert we devoured.  Rather than repeating myself over and over to give you a play by play of the weekend, I’ll just touch on a few highlights that defined our weekend.

We endured CRAZY storms one night which led us to venture into the small town in order to find a local greasy spoon for breakfast. The storms pushing into the morning wouldn’t let us get a fire started.  Small town people are awesome.  Kind of reminds me of our Story City days…
The boys did A LOT of fishing in the catch and release pond too!
 

We did a little swimming in the lake/pond too…. The temperatures were 95-100*F all weekend long. The water kept all of us nice and cool…. even Cooper!
Other than that…  We played SPORTS all weekend long! A little Soccer, Basketball, Frisbee… but mostly Baseball! We were better than satellite TV for most of our neighbors. Many of them even took the time to tell us so.  None of them could believe that a 3 yr old had that much know-how for the game.  One couple even asked if his father played professionally – at least the minors?  Ha! If only I was quicker on my feet- I wouldn’t have been so quick to reject the compliment.
Miles pitched with a full wind-up, rounded and stole bases, and cheered himself on.  He hit pitches from Nate and I, but also took a step back to practice hitting from a tee (since t-ball starts in 3 weeks).
Check this out below: I messed with the camera a little and took this motion capture! Nate has really enjoyed analyzing each photo to gauge each aspect of Miles’ form.

picasion.com
I’m sure this is only the beginning.
These next few photos are probably my favorite from the weekend…

After these candid shots, Miles wanted his turn capturing his favorite moments:
He adores his daddy!

He likes his mom too.

Ooh! Fires are pretty cool! The fishing pond isn’t so bad either.

Cooper is his “best dog.”

The neighbors and their flag – Happy Memorial day!

His bed and the playground.
 
Then the camera turned!  Miles wanted to take a picture of himself.
Shot #1: Oops.  just blurry chin.
 
Shot #2: getting closer.

Shot #3: Yeah… full face, just not so pretty.

Shot #4: Yeah!  Perfect!  Thanks for the photo bomb, Dad!

So… that was our weekend. Thanks for tagging along!
It was a much needed escape! Hope that you enjoyed your long weekend as well :)

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Posted in: Baseball,Kelly,Miles,Nathan

This is getting serious!

As you already know, A LOT of T-ball is played in my living room. Recently, the game has moved from the Tee to Nate pitching at Miles.  I've been recruited as the catcher. Kneeling on the floor is not acceptable.  Miles requires that I hold proper form - yes... I have to squat for the duration on the "game."

Balls still bounce off walls and furniture... but limbs have also become a target.
Miles SMACKED a ball - Nate couldn't move out of the way fast enough - and WHAM!

WELT!

Zooming in on the injury.... OUCH!  Is Nate mad?  NOPE!  He couldn't be more proud of his left-hand swinging slugger of a son.


Later on, Miles pitched to Nate (yes, I'm still squatting away).  Miles caught a bad bounce and ended up with a welt to match. He thought it was just as cool as his dad did. WHAT?!? Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks this is a little crazy!

I cannot wait to move in August.  We still don't know where we're going, but it WILL have outdoor space_probably closer to the lake. Indoor baseball with competent players is unacceptable. I'm just not safe anymore :o)


Posted via iPhone

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Posted in: Baseball,Miles,Nathan

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"Father and son LOVE! I'm so excited for Mother's Day with the 2 of them!"

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Indoor T-Ball… Yikes!

As I  mentioned in an earlier post… even though Miles is currently playing SOCCER for the Chicago Parks League, BASEBELL is his current love.
Want Proof?

Nothing in my home is safe with Little Slugger hanging out in my living room!

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Posted in: Baseball,Miles,Video