Ninjagos

Tyler can't pronounce the name of his baseball team. Neither can Justin.

Rather than something easy - you know like the Royals, the White Sox, heck, even the Ankees - we are the Ninjagos {not to be confused with Ninjangos, which is what we all keep calling it}

It's a type of Lego Ninja, according to brickipedia, a cousin I'm sure of 'ol Wikipedia {or a clever marketing tool by Lego}. I guess we're not down with our Lego vocabulary {I've since done my research...via Pinterest}.

Legos, Ninjas, whatever it may be, it's a cute group of 4- and 5-year-old stars who are shining on the baseball diamond, living out their dreams of playing ball in front of mommy and daddy...and typically grandmas and grandpas, too {Mom and Tony are the sponsors again}.

Tyler was in heaven at his first game when he was put in as a catcher. Although he wasn't 100% sure what a catcher did, he was quite enthralled with the face mask and pads, and overall, found the experience to be the highlight of the entire game.

He's since asked to play catcher every game {it pays to have daddy be the assistant (again)}.

Tyler has done fabulous every game. He's definitely generally paying more attention this year - much like he is at soccer - and is throwing farther and hitting better.

As an "older" kid on the team, he's somewhat of a "leader," although some of the younger kids are quite good.

He has fun hanging with the boys, attending weekly practices and digs chewing "baseball gum" during the games, slathering black stuff under his eyes and has even attempted a few slides into home plate {yes, MY CHILD, the one who HATES to get dirty!}.

I can't wait to see what the "baseball year" brings. We have weekly, if not twice a week, games throughout the months of May and June. Bring on the sunshine and heat. Oh, and the little navy Ninjas.

Here are some pictures from his first game, May 2: