Hygiene

What is it with boys and hygiene? Is it a boy thing, or just a kid thing in general. I have a hard time thinking that there are little girls like this out there, but maybe there are. Brantley doesn't care if he's dirty. His fingernails can be absolutely nasty and it doesn't bother him. What should I expect from a boy who used to eat the mulch on the preschool playground? It's not really hard to get him in the shower, but getting him to actually clean himself is a chore. "Oh, you mean you wanted me to wash my hair?" Brushing teeth is absolutely the worst part of Brantley's day. Why does he hate it so much? For a long time he gagged really easily and would gag every time he brushed his teeth. That doesn't seem to happen as easily now, but he still hates brushing his teeth. I keep telling him he has to take care of his permanent teeth because those are the only one's he's going to get. Do you think it helps? NO! I used to brush his teeth for him every morning but that was torture for both of us. Now, I feel like I have to at least one a week or so or his teeth are going to rot out. I have a feeling this doesn't get better.

2009 Mariners Pics

I really didn't take any pictures this season, but the coach had an awesome camera that he brought a couple of times and had people take pictures. There were some really good shots. Here are the ones of Brantley.

Baseball Conclusion

Well, baseball is officially over for the summer. The Mariners just didn't have it in them to win the championship. Even though they put together another triple play, they lost the first game by 3 so they had to go to a second game which was ended early by the 10 run rule. The Cardinals were an excellent team. They hit well and they fielded well. They also had some kids that really knew where the play was. Brantley got hurt in the second game. He was running to second base and slid in only to be hit by the ball being thrown in. The ball hit him in the face. I don't think it was a direct hit. I think it deflected off of something, but it was a hard hit. We ran onto the field, along with all the coaches. His mouth was all bloody inside. We cleaned him up and had him rinse out his mouth. He seemed okay, and said he could stay out there. When he ran home, I had him put ice on his mouth while in the dug out and another mom had some Motrin that I gave him. We weren't sure if he could come out to finish the inning, but while we were sorting out the rules, he decided he could do it. He finished the game. I was really proud of him sticking with it. They were all so upset about the loss, but they handled it like good sportsmen should. And, it didn't hurt that they got to go to a pool party at the assistant coach's house and got 2 trophies. One trophy was for being the league season champs and the second was for being a finalist in the tournament. They are really cool trophies. You can kinda see the injury in this picture. It looks worse today(I took this picture yesterday), but he says it doesn't hurt. He just says it feels weird which is probably from the swelling. I'm still not sure if he chipped a tooth or not. If he did, it's not bad and not real noticeable.
I hope that Brantley will read these one day and have fond memories. These are the things that I will remember from this season:

All the boys loading up in the back of John's truck to ride together from the practice field to the game. They looked tough all showing up together and jumping out of the truck.

I will remember the looks on Troyce and Thomas' faces when they got their first hits.

I will remember the excitement of Adrian when he told the coach he really wanted to play catcher. And, I'll remember when that throw from third to first came out of nowhere.

I'll remember the bear hug that Jackson gave Brantley after his unassisted triple play and the whole team celebrating together.

I'll remember the look on Chapman's face when that pop fly was coming right to him, and the look on his face after he caught it.

I'll remember seeing all of Brantley's worried teammates on their knee at the dugout waiting to see if he was okay after being hit.

I'll remember those face first, arms out, chest slides from Eli. And, I'll remember Eli chasing down the runner for the out.

I'll remember how tiny little Jack would hit that ball so hard, and run so fast.

Thank you Mariners for a great season. Good luck to those moving up, and we'll see the rest next season!

Championship bound!

The Mariners logged another win tonight. They will be playing in the championship game on Saturday against one of the red teams (Cardinals or the Reds..they play tomorrow night). Since the Mariners have no losses in the tournament, they get 2 chances to win. If they lose, it will be a double header for the championship.

Tonight's game was against the Cardinals, and they barely pulled it out. They came out screaming in the first inning and scored 6 runs. The middle of the game got a little dicey with the Cardinals taking the lead by 2 after the 5th. The Mariners came out swinging in the sixth and scored 6 runs with no outs!! Brantley got that inning started by the way! Then, they held the other team to 2 runs to win the game. Brantley had 2 singles and he caught an awesome fly ball on the run. It was so cool!

On another note, our coach got ejected from the game. There were some horrible calls, that went mostly in favor of the other team. David tried to call them on it and got mad. Apparently, as he walked off the field he said that the officiating of the game was the worst he had seen. He walked off the field so he wouldn't say something stupid to the umps. Then, a dad from the other team who was backing up the catcher told the ump to eject him and the ump turned around and said hey coach, you're out. It really was some of the worst officiating I've seen. But, our coach could have handled it a bit better. He may not get to be there for the championship game because of the ejection. Brantley is pretty upset about that because it is the championship game, but I explained to him that part of the game is learning to be respectful. The umps will make bad calls and you can't do things like that. I told Brantley that if coach doesn't get to be there, they need to win it for him and show what good sportsmen they are!!


Almost forgot....Brantley actually slid into second base tonight. It was good thing because he probably would have gotten out if he hadn't slid. I believe that was his first time actually sliding.

Another correction...he got a double and 2 singles. The double was in the first inning.

Payback is a .....

Remember I told you that Brantley hit a pop fly that was caught for a triple play. Well, he didn't forget it. Today against the Astros (I guess it's not really payback since it's a different team), Brantley was playing short stop. He made a diving catch and ran to tag second and tagged the runner from first for the triple play. It was awesome. We all went crazy. Jackson gave Brantley a big bear hug and lifted him off the ground. I was so excited for him, especially since he had struck out on his first at bat. I was afraid he had lost his mojo. But, that play got him back in the game and he came back and smacked the ball after that. The Mariners ended the game in the bottom of the fourth, 16 to 6. Now, they get to play the fourth ranked Reds on Monday night. Thank goodness it's not a 7:30 game because they play awful at those late games. If the Mariners win and the White Sox win, they will meet up Thursday night with the winner going on the play the winner of the loser bracket. I know it sounds bad calling it that, but that is what it is. It's double elimination and they have lost a game in that part of the bracket.