Kyle’s Week at Baseball Camp

Last week was a big one for Kyle. My guess is that it will be his top highlight of the entire summer. He got to go to Lehigh Baseball Camp!!! For our baseball lover son, it was a week in heaven. It was a really special treat of a week for him, and he truly seemed to love every single solitary second of it. Despite the heat (running sprints in the direct sun on a baseball field at mid-day during the last week of June/first week of July is sweaty-HOT!), Kyle’s enthusiasm and gusto for the love of baseball was ceaseless the whole week long. K & O have done Lehigh Sports Camps day camps for the past two summers (when they were 4 they did Soccer Camp; when they were 5 they did an all-sports camp) and this baseball camp was — by far — the best yet. I was so impressed with it in every way (which is saying a lot coming from someone who grew up in the camping world and was raised at a very reputable camp by very respected camp directors). Anyway, the bottom line is (regardless of whatever I thought of it) that Kyle loved it.  It was a tough decision for us to send just Kyle to baseball camp. When it comes to raising twins, decisions like these are not easy. Especially at these young ages when it is hard to really know what the boys, themselves, truly want/need and when they are so impressionable. But we decided to send just Kyle for a few reasons:

• Kyle loves baseball. Owen and Kyle both do love it, but Kyle does seem to genuinely love it more. He could play baseball all day. He could talk about baseball ’till he lost his voice. He could watch baseball on t.v. (or, even better, at a game) forever. Kyle just adores baseball.
• Kyle is really good at baseball, especially hitting. Owen is too, but Kyle is more interested in it, and wants to be coached at it, and responds so well to the coaching, that Kyle is just simply– at this point– on most days– better (and more interested in being better) at baseball than Owen. At least right now, baseball is a bit more Kyle’s thing than it is Owen’s. And this camp is a pretty serious baseball camp— (you have to be at least somewhat good at baseball, and at least somewhat interested in getting better at baseball, to do it)— so it made sense for Kyle to be able to do it.
• We enrolled Owen in gymnastics, once a week, for the summer. This is something just for Owen. We wanted something just for Kyle. (More about Owen’s gymnastics sometime later this summer).
• Kyle is completely trustworthy with the required obedience of something like baseball camp. He generally behaves well in structured settings. He likes rules and following them. He likes direction and coaching and he thrives on attempting to exceed expectations. He is driven, competitive, and wants to please coaches/teachers/adults. Owen is a very different child in these realms. We didn’t think Owen was ready for the seriousness of this baseball camp. We also didn’t want Kyle to have to worry about his brother acting up at baseball camp.
• Kyle is such a well-behaved boy and he deserved a special treat. He’s also quite independent (more so than Owen is) and we thought it was a good opportunity for Kyle to get to do something on his own, without his brother.

Well, we’re glad we did it. Kyle would wake up each morning bouncing and ready to go. He was beaming with excitement each morning as he’d lace up his brand new (and first ever) pair of cleats. And he’d come home each day enthusiastic beyond belief and eager for the next day to start again. Baseball camp was each day, 8:45-2:00. One thing Kyle loved was the drive to and from — alone with Mommy or Papi. This kind of alone time is rare for a twin kid, and it is precious time even if it is just a 15 minute ride in the car (and we may as well admit it– Kyle got to go through the McDonald’s drive through each day on the way home: chocolate milk and french fries for our all-muscle-and-bone-“power hitter”(coaches’ quote)-boy. At baseball camp the kids could bring their own lunches– or you could pay $16 on Monday morning which would give your son 2 slices of pizza and a gatorade for lunch each day. This was an exciting option for Ky Ky!!! That pizza and gatorade lunch was a highlight for him! Along with all the drills, workshops, baseball trivia, coaching, and… especially… the daily baseball games. He learned a lot, had a ton of fun, made some new baseball-loving friends, did really well, got even more inspired about baseball than he was before, and ended the week an even stronger baseball player than he was to begin with. Out of the 70 boys in the camp last week, Kyle was the youngest (ages 6-16; Kyle had just turned 6 one month before), but he stepped up to the plate and handled the whole thing with incredible grace and gusto. I cannot tell you how proud we are of our son. Kyle says that the only thing he didn’t like about baseball camp was “the no stealing rule” (i.e., they were not allow to steal bases during games, nor would they let them practice stealing bases during drills). Other than that (!), he loved every second of it.

And as for Owen… he handled the week much better than we anticipated. He got to get a pair of cleats too (so now they both wear them whenever they go out in the yard to play baseball/soccer/or anything)– which helped him share in the excitement with his brother (if he had been denied that it just might have pushed him right over the edge). And he got a lot of alone-time with Margie and Mommy during the week, which  is always a treat no matter what (again, you gotta remember that for twins, any alone-time with anyone is a real treat). Last, but not least, Owen and Meera spent the week together as tight as tight can be. They really bonded as a two-some without Kyle around. And that was awesome for them both (gorgeous photo of them from last week in post below).

So, all in all, Kyle’s Baseball Camp was a great week.