Every spring we excitedly look forward to the morning when we have to get up super early and be down at the ball field, dressed and ready for team photos. Oh wait…opposite of that! Don’t you know how I feel about Little League?
Anyhow…I spend the night before making sure the uniforms are sparkly clean and the grass stains have been washed away. I carefully tuck in the three sizes too big jersey into my son’s freshly laundered ball pants, making sure the team name is displayed perfectly across his chest. Hair is brushed, the team hat is put into place in just the right way so his eyes are in view, and we head over to the baseball field to get his picture taken.
A few weeks later, I finally receive the pictures back…and so excited to put my obligatory “mom button” of my Little League player on my purse. Laughing at his cuteness, I see the results of his first Little League picture. Not perfect at all in traditional means, but it was my baby in all his cuteness. I chocked it up to him only being five years old, and something funny to remember. There will be plenty of years of Little League photos that will turn out good….right?
Wrong. Seriously, the next three years of photos got worse. I mean….don’t these photographers even wait for the kids to smile? Don’t they check to make sure they got a good picture? Afterall, they have digital cameras for gosh sakes. It wouldn’t hurt for them to check and make sure they got a good shot. Geez…check out these beauties.
And these are just a few of the pictures, I couldn’t find four of them. My kids play Fall Ball as well, so we get two sets of baseball photo each year. Not one off them is “good.”
You may think that I am being mean for saying the photos are bad, but even my son would get upset when he saw them. I didn’t have to tell him they weren’t good, he didn’t like them.
“You know when your child’s personality shines through in a photo, and they don’t have to be perfectly smiling to get that.”
These photos were. just. bad.
It got to the point where I finally gave up getting a good picture. They were all laughable.
However, this year I was determined to finally get a photo that my son loved. It might be his last season,and I wanted to have at least one good photo to remeber Little League by. He’s ten years old now, surely he could hold a smile and baseball stance long enough for the photographer to capture that winning photo.
So, on baseball picture morning, I sent my husband off with my two sons and THREATENED him to make sure the photographer took as many photos as needed to get a good one.
“You better yell at the photographer to take another one if Jack isn’t smiling” I yelled out as they left. “I mean it.”
My threats must have worked! Hee hee. Finally, after four seasons of not-so-picture-perfect photos we got the Little League photo my son has been waiting for. We were pleasantley surprised to see this happy little Little League player in all his glory.
Now THIS is how I want to remember my little ball player. It only took five years to get this!
This is too cute and funny! The last picture is perfect, but I sure got a kick out of the other ones–and so will his future girlfriends!