13 posts tagged “bdog”

Bdog went to the Ortho yesterday to get the first stage of braces in.  I guess some type of spacer needs to be put in his mouth to slowly push it apart.  Well the XRay from a few weeks ago didn't give quite the correct angle and the mold of his mouth was bad.  So they had to do it all again.

Of course this means his mouth won't be sore during Christmas...

BDog turns 12 today.  Wow, I feel old.  It seems like only 12 years ago that we were in the hospital 5 weeks early because the missus was sick.  Little did we know how things would turn out.  Oh, wait...That was 12 years ago.
I can't tell you how special our lives have been because of him.  He is such a joy and it's fun watching him grow into a young man.
He certainly will have to be strong because his little sister is a pistol and will get in all kinds of trouble and big brother will have to bail her out!
Anyway, Happy Birthday Bdog!

  What is it with the Spring?  It's nice during the week but as we get closer to the weekend and baseball it is rainy and windy.  Today was no exception.  Wind gust up to 20 MPH and occasional rain peppered today's game.  We played the Red's. 
  For some reason everything seemed to click for our team.  Pitching was pretty good as was the hitting.  They're still not quite as aggressive in base running as other teams but they also don't run into as many outs that way.
  BDog had a good game himself.  3 for 4 and a walk.  He didn't hit it out of the infield but he ran hard and made a few singles.
  Behind the plate he was even better.  Twice he threw out a runner trying to steal third.  He also tagged out (Collided) with a runner attempting to score and held on to the ball for the out.  Pretty cool to watch.  He also played short and center but didn't see that much action there.

  The team won 22-5 so now they are 2-2.  They have another game tomorrow and hopefully the Sox (Ugh) will show up like they did for today.

  A good outing and I missed it.  Another baseball game for the boy and he pitched for the first time this year in the first inning.  I had some conversion issues at work so I was held up a bit so I didn't get there until inning five.
  In speaking with the coaches and mom, BDog did pretty good.  Walked the first guy and gave up a hit but he also got a strike out ground out and pop out stranding 2 on the bases.  A blank inning is pretty good in this league so I was quite proud of him.
  On the hitting side he took some good swings and had a long drive to right but the fielder was able to track it down.  He's starting to look a little more comfortable up there but there is still some rust.  We may have to take him to a batting cage to work it out.
  Oh, and the White Sox (Ugh) won!  I arrived at a tied 5-5 game.  We then scored three and they scored two with one inning to go but the game was called due to darkness.  We'll take it.  We're now 1-2.
  I did get to see BDog catch for an inning.  No one stole on him this time but he did have another dropped third strike and the batter advanced.  Gotta work on that.
  Next game is Saturday.  Maybe with the new glove...

  Due to some frenzied bidding at a recent auction (How do you pass up a good deal!) we acquired some new baseball mits for the kids.  Originally they bought a mit for Bdog and me but I already have two (Purchased an extra when I thought I lost one then found it the next day).  So I gave the larger one, 12" to BDog and smaller one, 11" to MJ. 

  While we were out last night getting a helmet and bat for BDog, we also found some glove conditioner.  I thought it was a good time to get mine in shape after having it for a year so we spread some paper and went at it.  Of course I had them do their own and they thought it was pretty cool.  Kind of greasy but Dad was LETTING them do it.  At least that is how I pictured it.  In reality, they were probably wondering why I didn't do it for them.

  So now we get to work on the break in process.  We've never done that for the kid's gloves before but hopefully these will be long-term gloves so I want it done right.  At the moment they are tied up with a ball in the glove to help give them some shape.  After a day or two, I'll have the kids throw into their mits for a while just to break them in. 

  It's fun to be able to show the kids how to do something like this.  I hope they will be able to use the gloves for a while.

 

BTW - We were using a 29" bat at 22oz for BDog and that was a bit heavy and short for him.  That's one of the reasons we were out because we wanted to find a longer bat.  Ended up at Play it Again Sports and found a $150 bat for $40.  Not bad.  Its 32" and 19.5oz so hopefully it will last a while.  That plus he's in an Adult sized helmet.  I swear he's growing up too fast.

  BDog had his first games this weekend for the local rec league.  He is in the 11/12 age group (Majors) and is playing by full baseball rules.  So there is leading off, balks and runners can steal home.  The hardest concept I think is the balk.  There were some obvious problems but for the most part they let the kids work through it as it is an instructional league.

  BDog did pretty well.  Saturday he hit 2 for 3 with two base hits, 3 RBI's and a sacrifice (Fielder's choice to first).  He played Left, Third and caught for 3 innings.  I tell you what, catching when it's real baseball is an art.  There is always something going on and you need to be on your toes.  BDog did ok and more importantly he had fun.

  Sunday was a little different.  He slept over at a friends house and was pretty tired all day.  For batting he was 0-4 with two strike outs and two hitting outs.  Didn't quite have the pop.  He again played left, third and caught for 3 innings as well as played first for an innning.  His fielding was pretty good although twice he dropped the third strike and the batter advanced to first.  The redeeming part was that each batter made it around to third and tried to score on passed balls.  BDog was able to get the ball to the pitcher both times and get them out at the plate.  Of course, a little latter on another passed ball the runner scored but BDog was getting better.

  His team is the White Sox (Ugh!) and they lost both games.  Saturday by 1 run.  They had a boy get injured in the middle innings with a pop foul ball hitting his glove then upper lip and he went down.  The Sox lost their composure for a bit and gave up a bunch of runs but fought back.  It was good to see them stay in the game like that.  Sunday they trailed the whole game and gave up some big innings early.  They stayed within striking distance but could never overtake.  They lost by 3.

  Next game is tomorrow night.  Hopefully BDog will be rested.

  Oh, and MJ should be finding out in a few weeks what softball team she is on.  It will be a busy spring!

  Turns out BDog has Walking Pneumonia.  Go figure.  He's pretty much over the fever but his stomach still hurts and he can't take a deep breath.
  What kind of parents are we to make him go to practice?  Actually he wanted to go and he was feeling better but I wonder if the running outside made the Pneumonia worse.  Who knows?
  He got the good stuff from the doc yesterday and we're staying home today as well.  Hopefully after that he'll be back to normal.
  Oh and MJ spent the night coughing.  We gave her some cough medicine at 9:00 and that helped until about midnight.  Then it started again.  Another dose and she was a little better.  Sucks to be sick just as spring is coming around.
  Ugh.

  As I stated in my previous post, BDog was sick on Saturday prompting him to miss baseball practice.  He had topped out at 102 for his temp early in the afternoon.  Well Sunday, he woke and was still running 100 or so.  We filled him with meds and the temp came down, his cough subsided and he felt better.  So we took him to practice.
  One of the drills they had the kids doing was running the bases.  BDog got winded pretty quickly and the coach told him to take a break.  The missus, not wanting him to be a slacker, told the coach that BDog should suck it up.  (Tongue firmly in cheek)  BDog never did hear the comment and the one coach laughingly told the other about it.
  BDog did end up staying in the whole practice and his cough was gone for the rest of the day.  I guess getting outside helped a bit.  He also got to pitch a bit and warm up his arm.
  Of course, he is home sick today because his cough is back and worse than ever.  The missus is taking him to the doctor to see if something is up because he's now been sick 3 or 4 times this winter.  Always a cough and sometimes a fever.
  Anyway, I thought this was funny and in no way were we going to let BDog do more than his body could take.  Matter of fact I was prepared to pull him but he said he was ok to keep going.

P.S. What is it about parents staying for practice?  They don't!  Our whole family stayed to watch and help out if needed and we always have.  We enjoy watching the boys practice and I usually shag a few balls or throw BP.  Not other parents.  Drop off the kid and then show up when practice is over.  I guess we are just weird.

  This morning I told the kids that we were expecting 6-9 inches of snow and that there was a good chance school would let out early.  Of course B-Dog didn't believe me and looked it up on the Internet.  (Darn Internet!)  I had him going for a few minutes but he had to confirm.

  The good part was that he then dumped some salt in his sister's hair and told mom that she had a lice outbreak.  Mom bought it for a bit and thought it was hilarious.  Later, Mom told sister that if she wanted to add salt to her lunch today she only needed to shake her head...

  Now for the scary part.  B-Dog looked up for some other April Fools jokes that are appropriate for school.  I guess he insisted on being the last out the door this morning because he had to get something.  Mom told him that as long as the joke didn't get him in trouble, that it would be ok.

  I'm curious to see what that joke was and whether or not he got detention.  (I hope not)

  BDog won his second trophy in two weeks.  Last Saturday his team finished first in the basketball tourney.  This time he took second in his age group for the Pinewood Derby in Cub Scouts.  This is his last year and I think it was special for him.  He actually placed 6th over all out of 54 so not too bad.

 

  We made the mistake of winning it all the first year and it's been hard to live up to it.  The win was a fluke and we had no idea how we did it but BDog was good enough to realize that it wasn't going to happen every year.  Well it didn't.  More often than not the next three years we were in the bottom half of the group.  We just couldn't seem to get it right.

  For some reason this year clicked.  Mom worked with BDog on the decoration.  He went with a camo stick-on which covered the whole car.  It was actually pretty neat and made the whole thing pretty smooth (No paint strokes or drips which I am notorious for).  I worked on the wheels.  Actually BDog helped by holding the drill while I sanded and polished.  I've always thought that the trick was in the wheels so this year I spent more time on them.  You know, come to think of it, I haven't polished the axels except one other time.  Guess which year that was?  Hmmmm.

  So come race day (Yesterday) I was working the pit crew.  I placed the cars onto the starter block and kept things moving.  When BDog's car came up, I paused a bit to watch it race.  It took the heat!  Wow!  Who would of thought.  Better yet, you should have seen BDog's face.  If he didn't win another heat, it didn't matter.  Winning one was all he wanted. 

They went on to race 5 more heats and he won 3 more, 2nd in one and 3rd in the other.  I was watching others in his group and saw that his friend from basketball was winning every heat he was in and had a great average.  There was also a boy in our den who was doing well so I though BDog would end up third.  I was surprised when he beat the other boy in our den.  (Ranking is by total time over 6 heats)

  Now the problem.  BDog graduates from Cub Scouts 2 weeks from today.  We thought we were done and moving on.  Not quite.  Since we won, we get to represent the den at District in March.  I guess the fun continues.