YaYa puts on his baseball helmet, grabs his bat and enters the batting cage. He’s so excited to be there that he doesn’t even take his jacket off. Right away, he begins hitting all the stray yellow balls back toward the machines. He’s got a lot of enthusiasm for baseball. He gives it 100% effort.
Today was baseball practice after school. We are now at the cages as YaYa’s older brother has pitching lessons. So YaYa gets some extra batting practice. He’s taken in his new coach’s instructions well. He is putting the steps into action. At first he misses. His swing is late, too high, too low and then…just right. Wham! He hits the ball. He hits the next, and next, and next. Now he’s on a roll and the smile on his face shows his pride.
I am the proud Mother, who looks through the chainlink and offers as much encouraging words as I can. “I know you can do it,” I say. And then he does. 