Extra-Cirrcular Activities

WAAAAAYYYY back in May/June Riley had some extra-curricular activities.  We signed him up for t-ball and swim lessons.  I was nervous for both…there was very little details on the city website about what each class would entail.  

For example: we showed up to t-ball with nothing but the clothes on our back.  I assumed that this beginners t-ball would a bunch of kids hitting a large ball off a T.  

I was wrong. 

How could I have been the ONLY parent who didn't know to bring a glove, a bat, a ball and a water bottle.  

oops!

To make it worse…they took water breaks every 2 minutes and Riley would yell at me 

"MOM YOU FORGOT MY WATER!!!!"

Sure enough for practice #2 we remember the water bottle!  

However the act of getting a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds together to play a team sport was agonizingly painful to watch.  I really thought Ryan would be the problem, yelling and trying to correct Riley.  But it was me…the parent pacing the fence trying to yell through my teeth

 "RILEY!  pay attention!" 

 "RILEY GET ON THE BASE! "

"RILEY DO NOT DRAW IN THE DIRT!!!!!!"

"RILEY! STOP TALKING ABOUT DINOSAURS!!!!!!!!!"

There really was no organization, the college girls coaching had no idea what they were doing.  And by the 3rd practice, most of the parents were standing on the infield coaching their kids on the side.  We TRIED to back off, but sometimes we HAD to step in.  And other times we just hung our heads in shame.  

One particularly BAD practice went like this:

the coach said to the group

"Do you guys want to play a real game today!"

All the kids jumped up and down and said "yeah!"

and Riley said "I want to play a WILD KRATTS game!"

The coach responded "Well…I was thinking we would play a baseball game!"

again all the kids jumped up and down and said "yeah!"

and Riley said "welll….how about we play a wild kratts game first!"

Before the coach could respond to Riley's rebuttal…a bellowing dad voice said 

"NO!"

Later during a similar pow wow…while the coach was so poorly explaining to 4 and 5 year olds how to catch a pop fly…Riley was drawing "sanajeh" tracks in the dirt.  Soon all the -once good listeners- were on the sanajeh ban-wagon, drawing in the dirt…no one listening….coach still talking.  

Painful.

To top it off…as if it couldn't get any worse or confusing…there were 2 Riley's.  And the "well-experienced" college girls kept putting them on the same team!  Their solution…make one take their hat off and say "Riley with the hat"  and of coarse Riley thought she was saying to take his hat off…I just couldn't watch some nights.

BUT!

Riley had so much fun meeting new friends and telling them all about dinosaurs and learning absolutely nothing about t-ball.  

$35 well spent.

On to swim lessons….
For this activity we brought all the right gear.
Riley had never been in a big pool and the life guard made the parents stay back, so I had to watch from a distance…far enough he wouldn't be able to hear me yell "QUIT TALKING ABOUT DINOSAURS!"

However, he listened really well at swim lessons.  And did everything they told him to do, including going under water.  That really surprised me.

What didn't surprise me was when a buzzard flew over head and Riley stopped in his tracks, pointed to the sky and yellled "LOOK MOM!  A HARVEY EAGLE!!!!"

Tate really didn't like having to be on the sidelines for these activities…