Elora Plays Teeball!

This was her first at bat of the game. She hit the ball and then felt scared to run in front of all the people. She informed me later that “I felt shy when all the people yelled Run Run! at me. I don’t want them to do that.” She is so funny about that – she wants people she knows to watch her, but once there are people she doesn’t know in the stands she gets very nervous!Here she is picking up dirt while playing right field. This became a pretty common thing for Elora during games. She always found rocks she wanted me to put in my purse to take home with me! The coach’s daughter Jael often would stand by Elora during games to help her. It was nice for Elora to have her own personal trainer, I think it really improved her game!After she got to first base, Elora was fine. She even waved to me while waiting to run some more.This is our favorite Elora running picture. She just looks so happy and so… like Elora.Elora really likes to get the ball, even if she has to try and clobber a teammate to get it. Luckily the coach was really good at rotating the kids’ positions during the game so that every kid got the chance to catch the ball during the games.And Elora really really likes throwing the ball! She even talks to me about how to throw the ball properly at home. “Mommy, I raise the ball to my shoulder, and then I throw really hard!”And you can tell she is VERY proud of herself!This is Elora’s “I am about to catch the ball position”. Luckily in teeball everyone hits grounders, so it is not too hard to catch, because I am not sure Elora can catch anything coming at her in the air yet…This is Elora’s best teeball friend Shayne, and the little ladybug they found who “really really wants to play teeball too!”During Elora’s last game, one of the older kids found a snake, which Elora was SO happy to hold. She asked me several times if we could take it home and keep it, and really did not want to put it down. Luckily it pooed on her hand, and after that she was quite anxious to let it go. Otherwise I think we would have had a new pet…When Elora is not picking up rocks, she really loves watching and running after the ball. Actually during her last game when she was never able to catch the ball, she threw her mitt down on the field. I guess we need to have a few more talks about how it is a good thing when ANYONE on the team catches the ball… Elora likes batting the best. Here she is with Coach Betty getting ready to hit the ball. Good hit Elora!You can see she got over being shy about running, and then showed off her sweet happy run every game! There were some highs and lows this season as Elora learned to play the game, but it was a good experience for her to learn about teamwork and to make new friends! Elora is sad that teeball season is over for now, but she is excited to play on a new team next year. And in a side note, Oliver is excited to play next year too. On the day of the last game when the team was having team pictures, Oliver made Betty take a picture of him holding the bat, and tried to jump in the team picture three times. He also tried to run out on the field to play during at least three games. He announced, “This is my team. I love when yell, Run Run! Go Tigers!” Next year buddy, next year!