Would he sink or swim? Then, the Christmas cartoon of Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer comes to mind when the "young bucks" are trying out to pull Santa's sleigh. There are weak attempts, name calling and rejection from peers. Could my Louie compete with his peers in the real world? Then I stopped the runaway train of protective mom thoughts and settled on, "Oh my...this is just T-ball; relax."
The first pitch came, he swung and missed. Coach realigned him to the T. Next pitch came and he hit the ball with ease. And then chaos erupted onto the field...loose ball! This is where 4 year old enthusiasm trumps all training and any attempt at position control. T-ball then turned into tackle football. And once a four year old has gotten the ball, the last thing they want to do it throw it away to first base! Those coaches were trying to herd a bunch of cats to coax a throw to first base. I was mesmorized by the show and so was Louie which caused him to pause before running to first base. By the time he made it around the chaos, the ball had beaten him to first base.
As he came off the field, I noticed he didn't care if he hadn't made it to first base. I don't think he was aware that he was "out!" He was proud to have hit the ball! In his mind, he had pulled Santa's sleigh that day...and that was good enough for me.
