Something happened today

that made me really love this boy.

But to get to what happened a story needs to be told. . .

Let's rewind to our Beach house trip this year.

This is Kale and his Uncle Robby.

Robby was the baby of the family and didn't have any little brothers to torture like his older brothers tortured him.

Enter Kale  - his oldest nephew!

Here they are having a sand war.

What is a sand war you ask?

Well according to Kale it is throwing wet sand at your opponent as hard as you can.

According to Robby it is sticking sand crabs down your opponents pants.

Now don't think Kale is a victim here.

You see. . . he is a smack talker.

Always has been really.

It goes against his entire tender hearted personality.

I can't explain it.

But he is.

So the entire week he smack talked his uncles. . .

And then this happened. . .

(I will let the next set of pictures speak for themselves)

His dad finally saved him.

Now don't think there were any egos harmed.

As soon as Kale emerged from the ocean with his pants back on - 

he was right back smack talking those two same uncles.

It's just who he is.

(now I want to clarify that in no way does he hurt others feelings  - he just has a "just try to mess with me" attitude)

Moving on with the story. . .

This year Kale played Fall Baseball again.

He played last year and made a pretty good friend on the team.

So this season I decided to sign him up so he could play with the same friend.

Long story short - In order to be on the same team I had to sign Kale up for MAJORS which is 10-12 year olds. My son made the cutoff by 2 days so he could play as a 9 year old.

The first day of practice comes. I know the boys are going to be a little older and I'm a little nervous, but nothing prepared me when we drove up to the field and I saw a bunch of giants out there warming up. 

Kale looked at me like he has never looked at me before. . .

His eyes were saying:

"I can't go out there."

"I can't go out there."

"Those boys are huge."

"I can't go out there."

(OK maybe that's what I was thinking for him)

But he took his bag, threw it over his shoulder and headed out on the field.

Now so you don't think I am over exaggerating on how big these boys (men?) really were I took a few pictures from the season.

Um, that catcher is the same height as Kale bending over. . .

Yep, that's what I thought. Kale comes up to about his waist.

And here's Kale with some of his team. . .

Do I even need to tell you he is number 1?

Really. It's not the camera angle. He's really that short compared to the rest of them.

But you know what?

It didn't matter how small he was.

He held his own with those boys (men?).

He didn't go out all timid and afraid.

It was just like he was hanging out with his uncles (except these boys (men?) were even taller than his uncles (sorry Rob and Ryan) smack talking with the best of them!

For the first few games I was so nervous for him. Not even about how he would do in the game but how he would interract with the boys (men?).

He was the one standing in the dugout always cheering (with a little bit of smack talk here and there) for his team.

There was one moment in particular that I remember. 

Kale was on deck and one of the other players was up to bat - one of the biggest players on the team I might add, and he struck out. 

He got a little frustrated at himself and as he walked back to the dug out - 

Kale says to him "Dude - what were you swinging at - you know you can hit off this guy"

I instantly thought to myself 

"don't hurt my boy. He doesn't know what he's saying. He doesn't realize that you could step on him and break him in half"

But he looks at Kale and says - "you get him for me"

I was impressed. My little guy wasn't intimidated to be on the team with these big kids. He could handle it.

So what happened today to bring on this huge blog post.

Today I walked into the kitchen from the laundry room and I saw Kale on the phone. When he saw me he left the room. A few minutes later he came back in the room and I asked who he was on the phone with. He didn't answer. I asked again. He got a little teary eyed and so I walked over and gave him a hug and asked him what was wrong.

He then told me that he was a little frustrated at the end of school today because he is having a hard time with this chapter of math and wasn't looking forward to coming home and doing his math homework. So while he was walking home with the neighbor girl down the street he said he was a little bit "frustrated" (his way of saying awnry) with her.

 He felt bad and so he had called her and apologized to her.

He really is the most sensitive smack talker there has ever been and he never ceases to amaze his mother!

I really, really, really love him.