Baseball- Good & Bad

Little League is now in full swing for Tyrel. After three games into the season the Mountain West Computers team is still looking for their first win. Tyrel plays pitcher, catcher, 2nd base, Short Stop, and 3rd Base. He is most excited about having a lively bat this year. Truthfully, I am probably most excited about this as well. All of his coaches have spent lots of time working on his hitting. In addition, Tyrel and I take 2-3 days a week for more hitting practice. In Little League games this has been tricky since he sees very few hittable pitches from the left side of the plate. As a result, he has been working of hitting balls outside the strike zone. This has paid dividends as he has reached base every time he has come up to bat.
The Fusion baseball team Tyrel plays on placed 2nd in their most recent tournament in Panguitch. This tournament is named the Ice Breaker, and for good reason. The first day the weather could not have been better- between 60-75 degrees with little to no wind. Day two was a different animal. It started cold and ended with colder storms yet.After a 20 minute rain delay (I was surprised it wasn’t snow) Fusion found themselves defeated in the championship game. Despite their 2nd place finish, they played well, played hard, and most importantly, had fun.
Tyrel has declared baseball his new all-time favorite sport. Funny thing about 10 year-olds is that they live in the moment. When soccer is going, that is his favorite sport. The same applies for basketball, football, fishing, etc. Oh to be so “in the moment.”One thing is for certain, there will be lots more baseball to come!

Hunting at the Hospital

A lot has happened to the Robinson Family since the last blog entry. Of the most significant, was our hunting expedition at Valley View Medical Center. For those of you scratching your head, I’m talking about the kind of hunt a pregnant mother finds herself a part of around 17-19 months of a pregnancy. This is a hunt for kibble and bits. Our hunt ended with a glorious absence of such leading us to believe we will be having a little girl!

The whole experience this time was different than with our other two children. We went into a big room where they started the process by dimming the lights. I was watching over the shoulder of the radiologist when I was told to turn around. Confused, I took my time before turning around only to find the same images displayed on a large flat screen TV!

Now I was mad. If I would have know beforehand that they were going to dim the lights so we could watch the show on a big screen, I would have brought popcorn and a drink. Maybe next time.

Erin couldn’t be more excited with the logical conclusion of a sister and is already scheming about all of the things they can and will do. Tyrel, on the other hand, is holding out on a mistake by the doctor. Either way we are all anxiously awaiting a new member of our family.

Tyrel- Another Year Older

Tyrel has celebrated another birthday and has now entered the realm of the double-digits for age. In perusing old photos of Tyrel for this posting I quickly realized that time has truly flown by. I still vividly remember when Tyrel was born. Now he is filling the role of a big brother- teasing, annoying, etc his little sister and parents. Happy Birthday Tyrel!

Easter on the Road

Easter for this Robinson clan came on a weekend where we were double booked all around. Tyrel was playing with the Fusion in the Pizza Factory Invitational in Spanish Fork. As the rules of Easter would have it, Tyrel’s birthday also happened to be the same day as Easter Sunday.

In an attempt to avoid sensory overload for Tyrel, and to lessen the sting of not getting presents for Erin, we celebrated Easter over a couple of days.

On Friday, while up north, we all met at Amanda and Shane’s house for a Munson kid Easter Egg Hunt. This is always fun to watch, and the prizes inside the eggs did not disappoint thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Munson.

The weird thing was, while quizzing the kids about the thing they remembered most about the event, Erin, without hesitation, recounted how it was Grandma Munson who stepped in dog poop- typical Erin.

Fusion Baseball’s First Tournament

Tyrel’s traveling team headed north to Spanish Fork for their first ever baseball tournament. They played several games in 2 days time; lost some and even beat a team. For kids who have only been a team for a month, they held their own against many of these teams.
Our last game started rocky for both teams. A severe traffic accident in the southbound lanes of I-15 resulted in these lanes being shut down for a couple of hours. The cars already on the interstate were at the mercy of this shutdown as they would not let traffic off. This made fielding a team tricky. Four players from the Utah Bandits and one of our players were stuck in this mess on the freeway. The Bandits got their players in the 2nd inning while ours arrived in time for his last at-bat in the final inning.
Tyrel fielded the ball well logging several outs with his glove. At the plate he swung well which resulted in some hits as well. He is anxious to fill a big hole in his swing so he can hit balls in the upper part of the strike zone more often.

When their tournament run was over it was very apparent that Tyrel had fun. We hadn’t been in the car 3 minutes before he told us he was ready for Fusion’s next tournament.

5 Year-Old Drawing

For those of you who may not know, Erin loves to write, draw, color, paint, or any combination of these. I have several of her best works hanging in my locker and in my office that bring some of her personality to my work day. We are grateful these activities hold the attention of this intense child, for a time. The flip side of these projects is the constant clutter on the kitchen table, bar, floor, and especially her bedroom. Inevitably, I find this clutter on the bottom of a tender bare foot while walking about the house.

Erin’s most recent work was drawn of our family and completed at daycare. It is sobering to realize how observant she is. The key to this drawing is Amy’s likeness. Even without Erin’s labeling she is the “one of these kids isn’t like the others.”
Tyrel must be the busiest 9 year-old ever. Between Scouts, piano, Little League, Soccer, and his traveling baseball team he rarely has free time. This is good as boys this age tend to be the definition of mobile mischief.

Tyrel is enjoying the practices as most of his teammates were friends before they played baseball. He is also growing anxious for his first out-of-town tournament over Easter weekend. We'll see how that goes.

Tyrel’s soccer team has yet to lose this spring. Their closest game yet was a 4-1 win after their first game. All others since weren’t nearly as close. More importantly, this group of boys have been gracious winners.

On Monday these boys have plans to enter into the Utah Summer Games for more soccer. Our schedules are heating up despite the weather.

TRUE THAT

Rick and Ryan Goldsberry (www.9thwardcartoons) are astute observers. I think they are on to something here.