Game Ball

This ball has not left Jackson's hand since the game on Saturday.  He earned it for his great hitting and boy was he proud and so were we!

It couldn't have come at a better time.   Jackson has really enjoyed playing with this new team and at first did pretty well with coach pitch, but the last couple of games he struck out and that did a number on his confidence I think.  He covered up his disappointment once though by hobbling back to the dug out, pretending he was a little old man and his bat the cane.  That kid is so funny!

Lack of confidence is not something we've really seen in Jackson so far growing up so in an attempt to get his head back in the game we did some fun practicing with him this week. I mean, he didn't really know we were practicing per say, and instead had fun playing Baseball Battle Tag (should I trademark that name?) in the front yard with all of us.  Every time we would mention going out to practice batting he wouldn't take us up on it, so I invented this crazy baseball game, involving hula hoops, chasing one another, a point system, etc.  Nothing fancy, but put the fun back into practice.  We had him go back to the tee for half the game and then took it away and he did so much better.  Every evening that week he'd ask after dinner if we could go out and play our new family game.  I was so happy it worked!

On Saturday,  he walked up to the plate with reclaimed confidence.  Both times it wasn't until the last pitch did he get a hit, but that confidence was there on each swing and you could see such determination in his eyes.  I was a proud mama!

What better way to have his practicing efforts pay off than to get the game ball.  We told him after the game that his practice paid off and he agreed.  YEAH!  Somebody else was pretty proud too!

Now that we've got batting down, it's on to fielding.  Dirt and bubble gum watch out.  You just think you've got Jackson right where you want him, but think again!!!