peanuts and crackerjacks

several years ago nancy (dave's mom) got the kids a couple of psalty cds. you know about psalty, right?  anyway, one of the cds is a baseball theme and ian loves it. there is a whole song about signing up for baseball and so i would get asked frequently, starting when he was around 3, when he could sign up for baseball.

a couple of springs ago, when ian was 4, we went to a sky sox baseball game.  at the end of the game the announcer told the kids that they could go get sox the fox's autograph up by the concessions.  i tried to keep up with ian as he zipped up the bleachers to be one of the first kids in line.  sox grabbed his little ticket stub and quickly scribbled his name in sharpie.  ian turned around beaming, ran up to me and said "mom, i'm signed up for baseball!!" adorable.

he had to wait almost a full year after that sky sox game before we signed him up for his first season of little league.  when i got the first message from his coach telling us who he was and when practices would be,  i put my phone on speaker and called ian over so he could listen to the message.  and, this is not a joke, my little 5 year old cried real tears of JOY, he buried his little face in my neck and said "thank you, mommy" over and over while he wiped tears away.  good grief, what a special moment.

on our way to his first game.

he got the game ball at his first game. 

his team got to participate in a skills clinic that colorado springs little league offered.  

and they also were able to play a ball game in the sky sox stadium because they were one of the top fundraising teams. that was a pretty incredible night.

ian was the first one of the game up to bat.  he gets a nice crack at the ball, but the little pitcher caught it!

20160605_170110 from mandy houle on Vimeo.

ian with his fans after he played at the stadium.

then his little team was able to participate in junior sky sox.  at an official sky sox game ian went out on the field and stood by the 2nd baseman during the national anthem.  after the anthem the second baseman signed a ball and handed it to ian. one of the cutest things i have ever seen.  he kept looking up at this giant guy trying to stand like him and hold his arms like him.  adorable. 

i didn't get great pictures of this, but it was awesome. 

and if all of that wasn't enough to complete ian's first magical little season of baseball, he and his cousin, toby, also got to do a clinic at the sky sox stadium with some of the players leading them in the drills.

i love my little baseball player.  i seriously cannot wait until the spring season. we had such a great time watching this little man play baseball.