Kickball in February

Kick ball in February

I left school, picked up the kids and got home about 4:45. Four neighbor boys were outside playing. Can I play outside, asked Kylie. Me too, said Davin. Davin already had wet clothes clothes from playing outside at daycare. Kylie had nice preschool clothes (and of course, I did too – well, high school teacher clothes). OK, we’ll be out in a few minutes. Can you play too, a neighbor asked me. Well, not today, I said. After all, it was a slushy, muddy mess out in our front yard. Sure, I played a dozen games of wiffle ball and kickball with the kids last summer, but not today.

We zipped inside. No Davin, you can keep your shoes and coat on. We’ll be going right back out. Kylie headed upstairs to change clothes and use the bathroom. It’s amazing how much you can get done when your five-year old is getting dressed and going to the bathroom. I went to the bathroom, changed my clothes, clipped my fingernails, folded a load of laundry, and did my taxes (OK, I may have exaggerated a bit.) During a busy morning rush, it can be frustrating, but at other times, it can help me get stuff done. Before kids were born, I would try to do housework during commercial breaks. Now I use my daughter’s getting dressed times. By the way, our house was and is a mess about 95% of the time.

Anyway, by the time we headed outside only two neighbor boys were still outside. I had my Green Bay packer windbreaker and old faded jeans on. I decided to play – I had to be outside anyway with my two-year old. Why not play? Plus once you start getting into the spirit, it’s kind of fun.

They had already set up the bases. They asked if it could be them against us. So we had the teams. Kylie (age 5), Davin (age 2) and Dad (age 36) against the two neighbors (grades 5 and 3). Kylie pitched and the first three kicks for their team sailed over my head into the street for home runs. We were a little outmatched. On the fourth kick, our neighbor let Kylie tag him for the first out. Then I pitched from the outfield. Kylie wanted to dig holes. Davin was having fun on the patches of snow. With one neighbor on base, I made a pretty good catch and doubled up the runner on base. Three outs.

We are up to bat. Kylie gets to second base. She’s pretty good. I lined out. Kylie ran and got picked off from second base. She had forgotten that rule over the winter to not run if it looks like the ball will be caught. Two outs and our two-year old is up. He kicked the ball and ran straight for the pitcher’s mound despite our yells to run to first base.

Overall it was a fun 30-40 minutes. Kylie and Davin were muddy and wet, but we had fun.