Baryshnikov-Ovechkin and the Lady Slugger

Have I mentioned before how much Owen loves hockey? Well, he does. He seems to love all sports, but I have to say hockey is his favorite so far even though he has not been skating yet. Liam liked hockey a lot too, when he was playing in the yard, but then he just never took to the skating. So we'll see how it goes with Owen. I have noticed him lately playing hockey in the yard on his tippy toes. At first I thought it was a little odd, and I even wondered if I should be worried. Then I realized what a perfect mimic our little man is. He is pretending to skate! Sometimes he'll even make the sshhhh sssshhh ssshhh sound of the skates on ice. I don't think Jim believed me that the tiptoe behavior was skating, so I asked Owen to skate for Daddy and sure enough, he ran around on the tips of his toes. So, while we most likely have a hocky player on our hands, I am not ruling out the ballet (or figure skating, for that matter) for this boy either.

Then there is little Miss Natalie and her t-ball trial. She only had two Saturdays of the YMCA Intro To T-ball, because it was rained out one day and we skipped it to go to the zoo this weekend. She was lukewarm on it anyway, because she was one of only two girls in the group. Also, we lost a ball down a storm drain and you would think she was scarred for life from the trauma. I was the one who took her to play (we asked whether she wanted Daddy or me, and she chose me- silly girl - I was an awful softball player as a child). So I'm taking full credit now for my brilliant coaching tactics (hey, I have to hear about Jim's coaching skills all the time) that appear to have actually generated some interest in the sport. First, I told her when she throws me the ball to picture that I'm Owen and I've just made her very mad. She threw hard. Same scenario with the hitting. Then I also told her that she could whack the ball harder than any of those boys. Now that the Y program is over, I've heard her say several times "I can whack the ball harder than the boys, right Mom?" as she practices (of her own accord, no less) hitting it off the tee. So now I wonder how Jim will feel about coaching girls...
I leave you with a few video clips for fun.