"Now We're Playing Some Baseball"

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Evan was in a good mood this morning again.  I took him to school without any issues.  Noah didn't get up which was good.  I think it's better when he sleeps in.

Rachel still didn't feel well but at least she could be productive.

She took Noah to the gymnastics class around lunch.

Rachel went to tutoring and Blanca came over to babysit.

Both boys had baseball games today.  They were playing on the same field, back-to-back.  Normally, a game on May 2 in Austin, TX can be really hot.  You have to make sure the kids drink enough water.  Today was the exact opposite.  At Noah's game time, the temperature was 49 degrees.  While many of you in northern regions might not think that's cold, it's very cold for here for any time of year let alone in May.  That was bad, but what was worse was the 25 mph wind.  That just went right through you.  For Noah's game, all the kids were wearing sweatshirts on top of their uniform.  Noah's team played a team he had played this year.  They had tied that team.  In fact, that's the only regular season game that Noah has not won.  Noah's team came out strong and ended up really beating the other team.  The best part of the game came in Noah's last at-bat.  He hit a hard shot and the third baseman misplayed it.  Noah was running so well, he got all the way to third.  He didn't stop at second (nor should he have) but he just turned and ran without hesitating.  It was really good baserunning.  I really thought he might be able to get home.  He was so excited about it.  He couldn't wait to tell Evan who was warming up for this game.

Evan had an absolutely great game today.  His team started out really slowly.  They were playing the only team where they lost and the game hadn't been close.  His team only scored 2 runs through the first two innings.  That's unusual as Evan's team is leading the league in runs scored.  In the third inning, the score was 10-3.  Evan's team had two men on.  No one had hit the ball to the outfield since the 25 mph wind was blowing directly in towards home plate.  Evan came up with two outs.  If he got out the other team likely could score 4 more and invoke the mercy rule.  He fouled off the first two pitches and then crushed a ball to the left field that wound up as a bases-clearing double.  All of a sudden his team started really cheering and they ended up having a 2-out rally and ended the inning down 10-7.  Evan came up in the next inning in the same situation - 2 outs with 2 runners on.  This time he hit a ball harder than I have ever seen him it one (this is starting to become normal).  It was a line drive down the left field line that rolled into the corner.  Both runners scored and Evan wound up at third.  When that inning ended, Evan walked into the dugout to get his hat and glove and he paused and looked at his coach and me and said "Now we're playing some baseball".  The coach then gathered the team and told them that Evan couldn't carry the team by himself, that Evan couldn't be up for every single at-bat and that if it hadn't been for Evan, they wouldn't have 9 runs, they'd have 2 runs.  In the bottom of that inning they didn't give up any runs and ended up tying the game at 11.  Unfortunately the other team scored 4 in the bottom half to go up 15-11.  Evan's team came up in the top of the sixth needing to tie or go ahead or the game was over.  Evan got the chance to bat again.  The other coach shifted the outfield moving them back and toward the left field line to try and protect against Evan.  Unfortunately, he hit a pop-up which was dropped but ended up in a fielders choice.  The next batter hit a ground ball to the shortstop very close to second.  The shortstop flipped to the second baseman who turned to try and throw the ball for a double play but Evan slid and just about took the second baseman out.  It was really an aggressive play.  I think Evan got energized feeling like he was carrying the team (which is ironically why I think he popped up.  He swung too early and hit it off the end of the bat).  His team ended up losing but I think Evan was feeling really good.  The coach of the other team was Evan's first tee ball coach.  That coach stopped to tell Evan what a good game Evan had.

We came home and got the boys ready for bed.

Until next time...

Pirates

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning when I got Evan up, he was in a very good mood.  In fact, as we were walking down the path to school, he decided to do a "silly dance" the whole way to the school.

Noah is not going to be able to do gymnastics on Thursday so we put him in a make up sports class today.  Noah had a good time at sports class.

I picked up smoothies for Rachel, Noah and me around lunch as I had to stop at the bank next to Smoothie King.

Rachel tutored this evening.

I have the name of this post as "Pirates".  Most people would assume I mean the Pittsburgh Pirates.  In this case, I'm talking about the little league Pirates.  Both Evan and Noah's team each played the Pirates.  Noah's team had a scrimmage against the tee ball Pirates and Evan had a scrimmage against the coach pitch Pirates.  Both games ended in ties.

Noah's game was first.  I helped warm up the kids and then I stopped and took Evan over to his field for his batting practice.  I came back and helped in the dugout with Noah's team.  Noah had one opportunity in the field at third base and missed it.  But at the plate, Noah got three hits.  He is hitting the ball much harder this season.

Then we went over to Evan's game.  Evan had a big 2nd inning. He was in the pitcher's position.  A kid rocketed a ground ball that somehow Evan got his glove on it.  It didn't stay in his glove and he momentarily lost the ball so he didn't get the boy out, but it was a great play.  In the bottom of the second, he crushed a line drive to right center which they played well holding Evan to a single.   In the third inning, Evan was at third.  He made a diving stop to his left to get a ball and raced to third to tag the base.  He dove to try to touch the base before the kid running from second got there but just missed (He touched the base with his glove hand but was holding the ball in his bare hand.  Also he could have just tagged the kid as they were running side by side to the base).  The next two times at bat he hit the ball hard right at the shortstop.  He got a single on one and hit into a force on the other.  Generally, it was a good game all around.

We got home at 8:30 after leaving the house at 4:45.  The kids are now in bed.

Until next time...

Noah's Fall

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Evan was good this morning getting ready.  I had said we'd try to ride our bikes to school this morning but the temperature was 36 so I decided against it.  While we were outside walking the path, Evan told me it wasn't cold at all.  It was pretty cold.

Rachel and Noah met Evan at school for lunch.  It was a surprise.  Evan really enjoyed it.

After that, Rachel and Noah went to his gymnastics class.

Later in the afternoon, Rachel and Noah went to her tutoring while I took Evan to baseball lessons.  Evan did well and got to use his new bat.  Noah didn't want to go to tutoring so Rachel bribed him with a slushee from Sonic.

When I got home, I began making pizza.  Noah was playing the Wii while standing on the couch.  All of a sudden I heard Noah make a noise and then I heard a bang.  I looked over and Noah was no longer standing on the couch.  I realized he must have fallen off the couch and hit the coffee table.  I ran over and Noah was laying beneath the coffee table crying into a pillow.  When I pulled him out and turned him over he had a big cut on the bridge of his nose and blood was pouring out.  He wouldn't tell us if his head was also hurting or whether it was just his nose.  He wouldn't let us put ice on his nose.  For a while I held a wet paper towel on his nose.  Rachel took over sitting with Noah and I got Noah a band aid.

I finished up making the pizza but both Rachel and I were worried about Noah so we called the doctor and made an appointment at the after hours clinic.  He didn't want to go, but if he was going to go, he insisted that Evan come with us.

The nurse cleaned him up when we got there.  We had put a band-aid on him before but the blood was still coming and when we pulled the band-aid off, his whole nose was swollen and covered in blood.  He was a trooper while he was being cleaned up.  The doctor came in and said that the cut was in a good spot and she could use the glue rather than Noah needing stitches.  Even though his whole nose was swollen, she did not believe it was broken.  She looked at his septum too to make sure that he hadn't broken his septum.  And she didn't think he had gotten a concussion.

We came home and I showed Noah his nose in the mirror.  We both were looking in the mirror and I told him he had really scared me.  He continued to look ahead into the mirror looking quite solemn and then all of a sudden he turned around really fast and yelled "boo".  It was pretty funny and showed me he was going ok.  He also read a book to Evan and me as I was putting him to bed so his mind is functioning fine.

Both boys are asleep now.

Until next time...

More Baseball and Grandmom

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

The boys woke up late again this morning - around 9am.  Evan has been going to sleep much later than he does when school is in and therefore he is sleeping later.  He's going to have a tough day on Monday when he goes back to school.

Rachel was tutoring again for the girl who she tutored for yesterday.  She brought both Evan and Noah this time and they both brought their baseball gloves.  They played with the 5-year-old.  Then they played Legos with her as well.

From there, they went to Noah's gymnastics.  While they were at the Little Gym, Grandmom came in.  Grandmom rented a car and drove over to the Little Gym and was able to see Noah.

In the afternoon, Rachel had an MB Squared thing to do.

I was at a client's today and I got home a bit before 5pm.  We needed to leave almost right away to go to another lesson for Evan.  Grandmom and Noah came with us.

Evan did very well.  This lesson was split between throwing, hitting and fielding.  The coach had only seen Evan hit before today.  Evan did well throwing initially, and then did pretty well at hitting.  The coach said he has a nice swing - that he just needs to keep working on aligning his feet and keeping his head down.  Then he had Evan field ground balls and throw them to a target.  The coach was very impressed.  He was actually kind of laughing he was smiling so much at Evan's fielding.  When Evan was done, he said to me that Evan's fielding is better than the 10-year-olds he works with.  He said he didn't have to correct him once and that his foot work is good as he fields the ball and turns to throw.

After that, we got dinner at Trudy's.  We picked up food for Rachel.

The boys are now in bed.

Until next time...

Last Day of School

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

At 4am in the morning, the smoke detector began to beep every 30 seconds to tell us we needed a new battery.  Considering that we sleep less than 8 hours a day, you'd think that the smoke detector beeping while we'd sleep would happen only 1/3 of the time.  I'd say it happens 90% of the time that it decides to let us know.  I think the other 10% happens to be during a Steelers game.  I think that's what someone needs to invent - a smoke detector that starts to beep during normal business hours.

I took Evan to school.  He brought in some of the cookies that we made last night to give to his class.

Noah slept in a while, which was good.  When he got up, Rachel and Noah went to HEB to get fruit and things as well as stuff to make more cookies.  Rachel wanted to make some for some of our neighbors.  From there they stopped at home to put away the refrigerated goods and then went to Noah's gymnastics.

I went to Evan's class party.  They had four stations to do things.  At one station, they made holiday cards for someone.  At another they made snow.  They took some powder and added water and it turned into what looked like fake snow at the mall.  Another one they had to say make a chart of how many ears and feet if you had 1 through 20 reindeer.  Basically it was a counting/addition issue.  The last station was counting of Skittles where they had to make a bar chart of number of Skittles by color and then made math sentences out of certain groups.  Evan seemed to have a really good time.

I came home and did a little work and then Noah and I went back to pick Evan up.  It was 42 and super windy this morning.  I put Evan in a t-shirt with a long-sleeve shirt underneath.  I did get him to wear a sweatshirt into school but he gave it to me to take home.  This afternoon it was in the high 50s.  Everyone whose last name wasn't Belkin was all bundled up waiting for their children.  When Evan came out he had taken off the long sleeve shirt and was just wearing a t-shirt.  I think people thought we were crazy.

For Hanukkah, Evan got a private baseball lesson.  I took him to it today.  The place was very nice and I was really impressed.  The guy started Evan hitting right away.  The guy asked Evan if he was right-handed or left-handed.  Evan said he was a switch-hitter.  The guy took him at his word and Evan did bat from both sides.  Afterwards the coach said that Evan was a lot better than he had anticipated.  We scheduled another lesson in two weeks.

When we got home, I made pizza while Rachel and the boys finished up the latest batch of cookies.  Noah and Rachel just delivered some to Blanca and her family.

We're about to put the boys to bed.  Until next time...

Bye Zayde

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning was another easy one as Evan was almost hyper after I woke him up.  Evan as we were leaving and he had to say goodbye to Zayde since Zayde was leaving while Evan was in school, Evan teased Zayde about it.

I came home and started to work.  Around 8am, Noah crept down the stairs to try to scare Zayde but Zayde saw him.  Then in a loud whisper I heard Noah say "Let's scare Daddy." I pretended to be scared.

Rachel, Noah and Zayde went to Panera for lunch.  I had a meeting and couldn't join them.  From there they went to Noah's gymnastics class.  Then they took Zayde to the airport.

Rachel got Evan from school today.  When he got home, he told me was "on fire" today when they played football at recess.  He plays with Jack and a boy named Cole from another class.  Other kids join in.

Rachel went to tutor.  I made dinner for the boys since Evan had his first playoff game.

In Evan's league, they play one game tonight.  The winner goes into a double elimination tournament.  The loser goes home.  That boy Cole from recess was on the other team.  Evan was excited to see Cole.   Evan's team won.  It really wasn't very close.  Evan's team held the other team to no runs in the first and third innings.  Evan was two-for-two with two singles.  He hit well after striking out twice last game.  He played third base twice and had no opportunities.  In the fifth inning he was at the pitcher position and threw out a kid there.  In the top of the second, Evan was in right field and a kid hit a sinking line drive.  Evan came in and was right there.  For some reason, he decided to slide to his knees to get it and the ball went just over top of his glove.  He needed to get in front of the ball, but still I thought he almost had it.  He didn't seem to be upset that he missed it.  He never gets mad at himself which is good.   So Evan's team moves on.  They have a game at 11:30am on Saturday.  If they win they play at 2:30 and if they lose they play at 4pm I think.  If they win one game and lose one game, they play again at 5:30.  And he has a flag football game as well.  He's going to be one tired kid.

The boys are in their rooms now.  Rachel and I are just about to have dinner.  It's 9:43pm.

Until next time...

Baseball Brothers

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning, as normal, Evan ate breakfast while watching "Quick Hits" on the MLB channel.  Think SportsCenter but completely about baseball.  As we were leaving, Noah got up. He wanted to come with us but we were running a bit late - Evan was moving slowly.  We didn't have time to get Noah dressed and ready to get on the back of the bike.  He was very upset.

When I got home, he was still upset.  I ended up clearing a space for him at my desk and he ate his breakfast while I did some work sitting next to me.  That made him happy.

Noah had gymnastics yesterday.  His buddy Cole wouldn't go into the class until Noah got there.  They really are good for each other.

We stopped at Target on the way home to get a few things.

When we got home, Rachel made Noah lunch.  Then she picked Evan up from school.  Rachel called the hair cut place, Cool Cuts 4 Kids, and they said they could get them in right away.  She drove the boys over there.  Basically they lied.  It took so long that Rachel wasn't going to make it home in time with the boys for their respective baseball practices.  I thew their bat bags and waters in the car and met Rachel at Noah's practice.  I gave Evan's stuff to Rachel, as well as a chair to sit in.  Then Rachel took Evan to his practice.

The coach came over to tell me how well Noah did at his first practice.  He said he only had to tell Noah things one time and he would do them.  He liked how focused Noah was and how he hustled.  I was really excited to see him out there playing.  At this practice he did really well.  He seems to understand baseball and he tried to do the right thing.  He played second base quite a bit and I only had to tell him about covering the base one time and he did it every time after that.  At one point the shortstop got him the ball and Noah spun and threw to first as if he were trying for a double play.  It was great.

After practice, we drove over to Evan's practice.  As we walked up, we saw Evan playing second base.  A ball was hit into the outfield and Evan covered the bag.  A coach in the outfield threw the ball to Evan who made a nice catch.  I heard that coach turn the other coach and say "That Evan is a monster."

Both boys were super hyper after practice.  I think they both really enjoy playing baseball.  Both boys are excited to watch each other in their games this weekend.

We came home, had a late dinner.  While we got dinner ready, Evan did his homework.

The baseball brothers are in bed.  I think they are going to sleep pretty quickly tonight.

Until next time...

Baseball Lessons

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning, Noah was the first one up.  Rarely is he the first one up. Evan got up a bit later.  Rachel took Noah to school while Evan stayed here.

Back in April, there was a group coupon deal for a private baseball lesson at some baseball facility here in Austin.  It was $29 for an hour private lesson so I bought it.  I tried to get in before the end of April but it ended up being tough to schedule because Evan was still in school.  I finally got around to scheduling it for today.  It was very interesting.  The instructor started off by showing Evan pictures of pro baseball players from as far back as Babe Ruth.  The pictures were all of the players mid-swing.  He pointed out that their swings, the basics of there arms, legs and upper body were the same.  He then showed us video of four players and broke it down frame by frame.  From there, he had Evan looking at himself in a mirror trying to mimic these swings.  He then hit off a tee for a bit and finally he went in the cage and the instructor threw to him.  I was worried that Evan was bored because it was slow and there was a lot of talking.  But at the end of the hour, Evan said it wasn't enough time and he wanted more.  He said it didn't feel like an hour.

When we got home, Rachel and Noah were coming home.  Rachel had gone to Target and then picked Noah up.

I quickly ate lunch as I had a meeting at a client's location.

As part of the make up for Noah missing several sports classes on our vacation, we signed Evan up for a gymnastics class at the Little Gym.  It was all older kids - Evan seemed to be the youngest and smallest.  Because of that it was fast paced and very active.  Evan seemed to absolutely love it.  They had them running around the gym at one point and Evan tried to run fast.  It was fun to watch.  Noah told us he didn't want to do sports class in the fall, he wants to do gymnastics now.

We stopped at HEB on the way home and got some fruit and veggies for the week while also picking up some prepared food for dinner.

For dinner for the boys I made a pizza bagel for Evan and fish sticks for Noah.  Noah insisted on getting fish sticks at HEB.

The boys are in bed now but not sleeping.

Until next time...