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Yesterday, I took Anna, Iain, and Lucy along to Thomas's football match. Usually he has two matches on a Saturday, one at 11:20 and the next at 12:30. The break between them is too long, and the others tend towards chaos. But yesterday it was just the one, at 11:20. Lewis had work to do, so I thought I'd take everyone out.

Lucy fell asleep on the way there. So when we arrived, I took a few plastic shopping bags (you know, the strong, reusable ones you keep in the car) and put them in my tote bag, so we'd have something to sit on. If I have to hold Lucy, I can't stand around for an hour, and the ground is always damp. Always. Of course, as soon as I put Lucy down on them, she woke up, and I thought we might be in for a lot of fussing. But no. We had a snack, then moved to where Thomas's match was about to begin.

Iain played behind us, and Anna found some stickers in my bag. Lucy happily stuck them to her top, and I actually watched Thomas play. I thought, as I looked around, 'this is what I thought it would be like...' Girls playing happily, Iain staying close, allowing me to support the team.

Of course, it only lasted about 5 minutes. Then Anna spotted someone's dog, and we never sat down again. But it was nice while it lasted.

Half rubber

Here is Thomas, on the last day of our beach holiday. Above, he's pitching, below, batting.

It looks like baseball, from this distance. The bat is the same. The ball is different. Apparently during the depression baseballs were cut in half, so you got more baseball for your dollar (or probably a lot less than a dollar). A game developed around these oddly-shaped balls: half-rubber. In some places in the south, it is still played, and we met a family who are enthusiasts. Because the father who invited Thomas to play with his sons came from a large family, the siblings and their children can get a pretty good game together now when they gather for family holidays in the summer.

Thomas gravitated toward the action as soon as it started, of course. His instinct that a sport is being played is uncanny. And he's instantly riveted. I was glad for the hospitality of this big family, who included him in the warm-ups and taught him how to hold a baseball bat. Thomas took to it straightaway, and would have played all afternoon and the next day, too, but we were winding up our time on Tybee and parted with great disappointment.

Our time at the beach was fantastic: a good time was indeed had by all.