A Sandlot moment

If you have never seen the movie The Sandlot, you should. We have it on DVD – you can borrow it from us.

Ane had her own Sandlot moment yesterday after dinner.

We had had a lovely day outdoors – Tad fell asleep in the car on the way to pick up Ane from school after we picked him up from school, so he was out for about an hour before we got home, and Ane is skipping her nap with alarming frequency nowadays – and we’d even eaten dinner out on the back deck. The kids had been outside playing for most of the afternoon, and mostly not killing each other, so the Webmaster and I decided to grill up some leftover hamburgers and cook up some french fries and have a family barbeque.

After Ane had finished, she returned to the batting tee, which she had been working off of for a good part of the afternoon. Auntie gave her a yellow softball that she uses all the time for playing catch and hitting with, which is HER ball.

She placed it on the tee, and yelled, “Mommy, Daddy, watch me! Watch me hit the ball!”

Ane squared up (her batting stance has improved) and swung, connecting solidly with the ball.

She hit it over our neighbors’ fence on our south side (if you’re in our backyard, it’s the high wood fence on your left).

The Webmaster and I busted out laughing – we always knew that one of the kids would hit a ball over the fence someday – but Ane burst into tears, sobbing for her “lost” ball.

The fact that her father and I were congratulating her on a very good hit seemed to almost make it worse. Trying not to laugh anymore, the Webmaster headed over to the neighbors’ yard to get the ball.

While I comforted Ane by reassuring her that Daddy was going to bring her ball back, I promptly grabbed the phone and called Grandma, who also saw the funny side of it all. “It’s not quite a Sandlot moment,” she reminded me. “The ball’s not autographed and there’s no dog on the other side to eat it.”

As Ane anxiously waited for her ball, I saw the Webmaster on the other side of the fence. “Where do you think it landed?” he called.

“I think it’s near this tree,” I pointed. Then I muttered to my mother (who was still on the phone), “Why did I send the colorblind man to find a yellow ball in the green grass?”

I was proved wrong, though, when the ball came sailing back over the fence ten seconds later, to Ane’s delighted squeals.

However, I turned Ane the other way, so she had more yard to bat in. If she’d hit over the OTHER neighbors’ fence from that distance, I was going to march her down to Safeco Field right after school today for a tryout. 🙂

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 12:52 am and is filed under Children, Life in the Pacific Northwest.
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