Who's your mama?

For the most part, I think I am an okay mom. My life revolves around my kids. I would rather be with my husband and kids than anyone else (my parents and sisters run a tight race with them). I have many faults as a mother. I do not like to be touched. I have very little patience. I am not that great at getting stains out of my kids clothes. I yell a lot in the mornings when we are late. I am not a good cook, and cook the same terrible meals each week because I have very little desire to look for new recipes. I could go on and on!

Garrett has turned 12 and I know the day is coming when he is not going to want me around. He will be entering those teenage years when he will think I know nothing. He will be embarassed if I walk next to him in public. He will ask me to drop him off at school several blocks away so that his friends won't see him with me. I am absolutely dreading these years. It is going to be very hard on me. But right now, he likes me. He is not yet embarassed of me. He doesn't mind if he is seen with me. So I try to take advantage of every second I can spend with him (and Grant and Gracie too, because they are not far behind him).

While we were in Mexico, Garrett missed two days of baseball practice. We got home really late on Monday night. On Tuesday, I took him over to the baseball fields right after school. He didn't have another practice until Wednesday, so we decided to do a little batting practice of our own. There are two fields where the little league games are held. They are popular and it is sometimes hard to practice there. One field was being used, but we were able to use the other. I began pitching to Garrett. I am not that good! Most of the time he is ducking to avoid my pitch nailing him in the head or jumping before it beans him in the feet. It is a great workout for him. We have a bucket of about 50 baseballs, and I MAYBE get 15 good throws across the plate. But, I try. I am there. I threw him about 8 buckets of balls.

As we were there, some of his teammates showed up and a couple of his coaches. The teammates were working with a batting coach, getting quality instruction. And Garrett was on the other field getting pitches thrown at him by his mom. His coaches would watch us occasionally, I am sure shaking their heads at my feeble attempts to coach my son. I was pretty embarassed, but Garrett didn't seem to be. He kept asking for just one more bucket. We batted for close to three hours (Grant and Gracie took turns as well). I could hardly lift my arm by the end. It felt like a wet noodle.

Well, Garrett had a tournament this weekend here in Washington. During their first game they had loaded the bases. Garrett was up with two outs. I get so nervous when this happens. First pitch he swung and missed. Next pitch he cracked the ball over the center fielder's head, to the fence. He got a double and two RBI's. All of the parents kept coming over to me saying, "I heard you were pitching to Garrett this week. I guess it is working". Garrett batted pretty good throughout the tournament. Maybe he will keep me around a little longer. All I know is that I will probably be having shoulder and elbow surgery in a couple of years, but I will have had some quality time with my kids while they still think I am cool to be around.