Spring Training

Brandon playing catcher in 2005 for the Cubs

Baseball started this week for Brandon. He has been very excited and working hard to get ready --practicing outside, and in. He was sliding around the kitchen the other day and "made an amazing catch in the outfield." Then he jumped up and tipped his hat to his fans as he ran off the field.

He said to me "It feels so good to be getting back into baseball." I think so too. Baseball season promises that warmer days are coming, that sweet smelling grass will replace tired brown fields, and that the coats and snow boots in my mud room will soon be crowded out by sports equipment, picnic coolers, and actual mud. I long for those warm evenings spent at the ballpark watching my baby (he loves it when I call him that) do what he loves the most. Those are memories that make my heart smile. I'm sure that I have also spent many long hours in the cold and the rain, huddled under a blanket, just wishing the game were over, but as any great 10 year-old ball player knows, it's not what happend in the game that matters so much as how you remember it --real or imagined.

And you should have seen that awesome catch. Right in our very own kitchen.