Stahlke Adoption

Little League

We have taken the plunge and enrolled all five children in Little League. Since our kids are athletic, and baseball is so integral to American culture, it seemed like the right thing to do.

A year ago, we offered Little League to the children, but only Misha decided to try it. Most of the children were involved in gymnastics or ballet, and we told them that only one sport at a time was possible. Misha actually stopped gymnastics classes to try T-ball. I was especially happy with one of the side benefits of him playing ball: the four older kids, who had never played baseball, now had a safe way to observe and learn the game by watching their little brother play.

In addition, the children's elementary school uses baseball rules for their kickball games. That helped our kids internalize the concepts without realizing it. They also had a big taste of Chicago fan support in fall 2005 when the White Sox won the World Series. Currently they are all Sox fans, while their parents favor the Cubs--makes for some interesting discussions at the dinner table.

Yesterday, I spent an hour entering all the practice times and games times into my calendar. Oh, my! I'm trying hard not to have second thoughts about this, but the scheduling is going to be . . . challenging. For example, look at Tuesday, May 8:
5:30 Home game for Misha
5:45 Away game for Lena
6:00 Practice for Ruslan
6:30 Away game for Bogdan
Luda gets the day off, but she has games on both Monday, May 7, and Wednesday, May 9!

All of you who advised us not to sell our Cavalier when we bought the van--THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

posted by Stahlkes @ 1:23 PM