Long time...long day...long post

Someday, I'll look back and wish I had made more posts because there isn't a day that goes by that something happens that I wish I'd remember. But time flies and I get sleepy at night and laziness wins over the desire to post on my blog.

But I thought I'd post about another one of our Jansen firsts today..."Select" Tball. Yup, Trace was asked to be on a select tball team in a tournament this weekend. So, we had our first (and only) 1 and a 1/2 hour practice last night where I thought I had driven to the wrong place because it was downright serious. The coach was doing drills, teaching the boys signs on where to hit the ball (OMG, I mean really) and was hard core with these boys (or babies, as I still see them).

Trace is the ONLY one not even in school, these boys are either in kinder or 1st grade. Trace is still scared of the ball a bit...but the boy can hit and run better than others his age and I guess got some notice. When Trace was introducing himself to the team - or shall I say whispering his name (somehow I have a shy one...I think that is from his Daddy) - one of the boys was like, "Yeah - he's [Trace] younger than me but he's way better than me..." We got a laugh out of it of course, and the kid's dad just shook his head.

Then comes today - our regular season Texas Rangers game was at 12:45 - we beat the undefeated Astros 20 to 19! AND - Trace got his first homerun finally. He's been hitting to outfield but never made it all the way in for the score. So that was really fun...

Then two hours later (after a 30 minute power nap for everyone except me) - we start our FIRST of TWO games in this tourney. We smoked the first team and Trace did well hanging in there with the boys. If we could just get him to stop chewing on his fingers from being nervous. Then after the first game, Trace comes out of the dugout with all his stuff, and I'm like, "No honey you have another game"...and then came the tears...he was like, "I don't want to play again, I'm tired." And I'm like..."JP, deal with this" - only because if I had "dealt" with it - I would have picked my baby boy up and taken him home. BUT, JP calmed him down and reminded him of how they won the first game and he got his wind back (he is also ultracompetitve...I think I'll take credit for gifting him that trait).

Second game - a little tougher team, but our group ends up winning. JP ended up having to hang with Trace in the dugout to keep him cool, but I was all for that. I just want to make sure he is really having fun in all of this and don't ever want to turn him against it since he seems to love it.

So, here we are...9:36PM...twelve hours from now we'll be back at the tourney. Games at 10AM and 3PM ...this is serious stuff. I just pray for a little trophy and a good nights sleep tomorrow. Then we might just go back to regular season and try all-stars next year.

That was quite a bit of rambling, but I'll want to remember it someday...and on that note...it melts my heart literally to tears almost every game when I see Trace in his uniform all down (or "baseball ready" as they call it) and ready waiting for that ball to come...precious little man.

...ps...just so we don't forget memories of Elizabeth...the other day we were at Trace's practice and in front of all other parents she's says, "Momma, my panties are up my butt." Well, what can we say to that...and like I said to all the parents laughing and looking at us, "Well, at least she knows when she has a problem and wants to solve it." What a mess pot...but a beautiful one!