I'm STILL thawing out two days later

Have I mentioned that Nathaniel and Nick both wanted to play baseball this season? Not a huge deal, UNTIL WE HAD THE COLDEST WINTER EVER.

Seriously. For Alabama, where we never have snow (until like four times this month alone) and I don't even own a pair of gloves, this winter has been beyond frigid.

But we'd told the boys they could play baseball this season since soccer was such a rainout in the Spring, so here we are. At baseball season with temps in the freakin' 30s.

Tuesday night was Nick's first T-ball practice. I threw a sweatshirt in my bag with my shirt, shorts and leggings on the way to work that morning. I didn't realize until I pulled it out at work late that afternoon that it was my REINDEER SWEATSHIRT. That I'd bought for Melanie's tacky-sweater Christmas party. And apparently didn't fluff in the dryer to get rid of the wrinkles.



No prob. I'm just channeling my inner 5-year-old, the one who loves to wear his Thanksgiving pumpkin T-shirt year-round. True story.

So, back to my stellar preparations for the night-time practice. I brought a bottle of Propel for Nick.



I placed all of his equipment carefully in the floorboard. (Well, I tossed it in, but who's counting?)



I picked him and Jake up from daycare early, and we headed to the fields for the 5:30 practice. Luckily this was one of the nights that his and Nathaniel's practices don't overlap, because have I mentioned that between them they have FOUR PRACTICES PER WEEK? Yes. Two weeknight and two weekend practices.

Despite the chill in the air -- nay, THE FREEZING COLD AIR -- it was a beautiful night.



Jakey sat with me on the sidelines (and by "sat with me," I mean he "ran around, tried to eat the dirt, attempted to catch stray pitches, screamed because I wouldn't let him run around the outfield, and ripped open the cheese and cracker packages reserved for the team").

We watched as Nick waited his turn to catch some throws. (He's never looked so cool, right?)



It was cute because some of the older kids who've been playing for years were there helping the adult coaches out with these first-timers.



After they finished fielding practice, they came in to bat.



The lighting was terrible so I didn't get a good one of Nick batting, but here he is running to second like his life depended on it.



He waited at second until the third-base coach waved him on to third.



Then he talked to the third-base coach and the youth helper while he waited to be waved home.



He got some tips from the third-base coach about how to run home.



And once he got there, it was time to start all over again.



We'd been there for an hour. At that point my extremities had lost all feeling.

Luckily Nick connected with the ball quickly this time and came bounding down the first-base line toward me.



He stayed firmly planted on first as he awaited direction from the coach.



Before long, he was on second again, just hanging out, cool as a cucumber. It was like he'd been doing it all his life.



By this time it was pitch dark and my nose had frozen up and fallen off my face.



After 90 minutes of this, they finally ran in. And guess who'd had a GREAT TIME and COULDN'T WAIT to come back on Saturday!



They called his name. Loudly. OH SNAP. THEY WEREN'T DONE YET.



One more shot before they wrapped up for the night.



And THEN they finally came in for the team huddle and whatever-you-call-it-when-they-yell-the-team-name-and-throw-their-hands-in-the-air.



As we headed back to the car, Nick said, "Mommy, I had a GREAT time. I LOVE T-ball. Can we practice MORE? RIGHT NOW?"

So there will be many more frigid nights, but next time I'll bring something more substantial than my reindeer sweatshirt to keep me warm. And it'll be worth it ... after all, those dimples LOVE T-ball.