Home Boy

Ty, our little home boy... meaning he would be so content never to leave the farm.  He loves our house, his room, the land, all the trees, the animals, etc.  He is quite content to have others come here and hang out, rarely does he consider leaving the farm, to do anything, a good idea.  Except for 2 things... scouts and baseball.  He really loves weekly cub scouts and during baseball season he is so driven by his love of the game.  This week, though, his two loves collided in a hectic way that I thought may do us BOTH in.  Adding to the impending collision the fact that last weekend he was in the initial games of the AllStar tournament and he got dehydrated... tremendous headaches, dizziness, double vision, and a night of severe vomiting... whew, he survived the crazy schedule to enter this week... with an even more hectic schedule.  Ty and I don't DO hectic schedules well, we much prefer slow paces in general.  But THE week came nonetheless and we tackled it with all we had to give!

Beginning Monday morning with Cub Scout Day Camp.  This is a Monday-Friday, 7 hours a day camp.  Ty loves day camp, but after being sick with dehydration on Sunday... he was nervous to say the least.  Thankfully he did fine, a credit to all the amazing scout moms that rally to pull off this HUGE event each year.  I really love that when I drop Ty off in the morning I know there are tons of 'moms' and even a few dads that are there to be with him, so appreciate, truly.

 I drop him off at 8am.  Return to park at 2pm to sit in pickup line for an hours so I can be first in line to get Ty at 3pm pickup.  I know this is a blurry picture but this is classic Ty when he barrels into the truck at 3.

 On the very first day he leaps into the car all grins, exhausted but happy.  Rattling off all the fun things he did that day... archery, bbguns, olympic games, chess... whew!  But wait!  "What happened to your leg?!"  Huh?  He looks at the scratches down his leg and seriously can't remember getting them.  Boys! 

We don't have time to ponder the flesh wound for long because Ty has to quickly change into his baseball uniform... go, go, go.  Within 15 minutes of pickup from camp, his has changed clothes and is asleep.  Yep.  Out cold.  This is a phenomenal that has been both a blessing and a curse with Ty.  The boy falls asleep in minutes of being in a moving car.  This week that has been a blessing because he is able to get 1 1/2 hours of sleep between camp and the beginning of his baseball game each night.  Please note that this photo is taken in the parking lot of the ballpark and I have taken off his seatbelt and laid his dead asleep body on a pillow for more comfortable sleeping... didn't want grandparents to think I drive with him unbuckled, wink!

 And at 4:45pm I simply whisper his name, and he shoots out of a dead sleep ready to PLAY BALL. 

So lets get this straight.
Ty's schedule:
7am - wake up, get dressed for camp, eat breakfast.
7:20am - load into car for 40 minute trek across town to camp.
8am - arrive at camp and drop off.
8am-3pm - tons of fun, lunch, go, go, go.
3-3:15pm - happy ramblings about all the fun, me reminding him to hurry and get baseball uniform on, and Ty asleep in truck.
4:45-8pmish - Ty playing baseball.
8:30pm - he finally gets dinner, fact about Ty... he cannot eat right before a game else he gets "knots and cramps in his gut" or so he describes it :)  So late dinner it is!
9:30pm - I am sending him to bed although he is CONVINCED he is not tired and wants to watch movies instead.  I reassure him that he is only nine and that I know better and that I am much meaner and he better get in bed.  And we repeat this process the very next day.

So please imagine with me... the relief when his team finishes the tournament on Wednesday, we lost and it was a tough loss... but the 3 week AllStar season (every night 2 1/2 hour practices or games) is done, regular season games and practices before that, and imagine my content sigh as I exhaustedly plopped onto our couch late, late, Wednesday night.  And the phone rings.  Late night phone calls are always startling.

Shawn answers and is nervously looking at me... afterall he knows how crazy my last few weeks have been especially THIS week.  He hangs up the phone and gives me a sheepish grin.  I am defenseless against my man's sheepish grin, dang it!

So the story goes like this...  older AllStar team has lost 2 players with the possibility of another player out too... they always 'draft' extra players for AllStar team to have a deep lineup, but the potential loss of 3 players will cripple the team.  So the Coach of that AllStar team asked to pull Ty up as an alternate for the older team.  To be asked to 'play up' in an older league is an honor, Ty was asleep at this moment but I knew he would be so happy when he got the news in the morning.  Their tournaments start this weekend, whimper, sigh, exhale.  Ty may not actually have to play, but he is in the wings... and I am CONVINCED this is the baseball season that never will end, nope... I am doomed to have the ridges on those darn bleaches forever indented on my tush, yep.  But this is not about me, right?!  RIGHT!  I shall pick him up yet again from camp at 3pm and we shall wait for the call to come to the field... and if it never comes, that would be great too, cause this has been a great, hectic, crazy, mom taxi driver, wonderful week and I wouldn't trade it for the world.  But let it be noted... next week I may not leave the farm once, nope, hermit in training... I like the sound of that!