Black cats

My youngest has joined her first sports team. She's taken gymnastics before, and goes to weekly swim lessons more than half the year, but she's never been on a bonafide team before. I mean, she's only 5, so this is how it should be. But, the time has come -- she is playing T ball in the local 6-and-under league.

It is so stinkin' cute. The girls have no earthly idea what they're doing. Therefore during practices and games there is a lot of repetitive shouting of the word, "run."

As in, after a girl hits the ball at home plate and stands there looking around: "Run, run, run, run, run." Or when the ball is hit by a teammate and the girl is still standing on first watching her teammate run toward her: "Run, run, run, run."

The other phrase you hear a lot of is, "Get the ball, get the ball, get the ball." This one, not surprisingly, is chorused when your team is in the field. And is of course followed by, "Throw the ball, throw the ball, throw the ball."

It goes on like that for all 3 innings, during which every girl from each team gets a turn up to bat.

It sounds boring, but ach, they are just all so cute at this age, and no one is competitive yet, not even the dads. (This does not last, I can  promise you that).

When my girl's team was assigned black shirts, making their uniforms completely back, they were bummed for a minute, but then decided to call themselves the Black Cats.  White shocks with pink paw prints were purchased for the girls, and on opening day for their photos, well, there was this too:

Adorable, right?

I can't tell you how refreshing it is to go to a game and root on your team and not care a whit, not one little tiny whit, if they win or lose. Because at this stage, the winning is in the trying, in the doing; in the process and not the product.

Damn, I could use more of that in my life. I think we all could....