Monday, August 31, 2009

Mommy's Little Man

Bg,

As I watched you play your second last softball game of the season tonight, I found myself drifting back 18 years in time to your first season of t-ball. As a fan of the Blue Jays, you were so excited when we asked you if you wanted to "play ball."

Your first year was an indoor parks and rec program. I'll never forget your very first day ... your hearing problem resulted in you not being able to pronounce some of your words properly. Unfortunately your name was one of your most difficult to pronounce. When your coach went around the circle asking everyone to introduce themselves, you told the group your name was Mandon and without hesitation your coach replied "nice to meet you Mandon." You were so upset. We spent the entire next week practicing and the following week you told everyone your name was Brandon and then so proudly turned to me and said "right, Mommy?"

You were so focused that year. You would smack that ball off the tee with everything you had in you ... and then knock everyone down as you ran to get "your ball." We tried so hard to get you to understand that you were supposed to run to first base after hitting the ball. As far as you were concerned, you hit the ball and so you had to run to pick up the ball. You were so much bigger then the rest of the kids and you were quite prepared to run over anyone who got in your way.

You were very proud; and I was even prouder.

You've come a long way since then, even reaching Nationals in 2004. I was as proud tonight watching you strike out in your Men's League, as I was at Nationals and all the way back to that first year of t-ball.

Tomorrow I will watch your final game of this season, and look forward to another trip down memory lane.

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