T-ball started last week and now the season is in full swing.

My six-year-old daughter Danni and I have been preparing for the season for a couple weeks.

I’m not a ball-sports kind of guy – I can fix your car or build you a new set of kitchen cabinets, but I can’t tell you all of the rules of baseball. Because of my own shortcomings, I bought a glove and a few balls and started playing catch with Danni.

We’ve had a great time playing. If it’s a nice night or weekend you can find us trying to kill the grass on our front lawn while running back and forth chasing the ball. I’m really not very good, but I guess she isn’t either. The difference is she’s six, and she’s not supposed to be good.  I’m thirty years older than her and I’m supposed to be able to catch the ball most of the time.

For me, not knowing what kind of advice to give is tough. A couple Tribune reporters coached and played a lot of ball and they have offered me some great advice for the beginning player. My father-in-law taught Danni some throwing technique too. Now only one of us throws like a girl.

Today was the first game. It might have been the most enjoyable sporting event I’ve ever been to. All of the kids hit in rotation then traded bats for gloves and headed to the field. Many of the kids ran the wrong way after hitting the ball or grabbed the ball they just hit. Only a few kids seemed to really understand the game, but everyone had fun. Coach Sam (I would guess it’s short for Samantha) was wonderfully pleasant and patient with the kids. Luckily, I didn’t see anyone cry while I was there.

Click the link below to see a video of Danni’s first at bat.

Danni’s first game.

Each night after school my wife or I try to clean out my daughter’s backpack.

We sometimes find some interesting things among the wads of folded paper. Danni likes to pick up all sorts of junk, one day there was broken bike reflector and someone else’s pony tail holder in her backpack.

A couple nights ago I was hanging up Danni’s jacket when I discovered a fresh junk repository. I was tipped off by something as long as her forearm and kind of pointy sticking out of the inside pocket. Turns out it was a stick – looked like some sort of pine, probably about eight-inches long.

That discovery led me to inspect further. In her pocket I found some cardboard, that had obviously been litter, two pebbles and a used plastic spoon. Her other pocket was stuffed with a small pair of gloves so it had no room for treasure.

I can’t be mad at Danni for it, her reasons are noble. She has a vehement hate for litter, especially at her school, so she will pick up anything and plan to take it to the trash. I said plan, but sometimes even the best laid don’t work out. Somewhere on the playground she gets sidetracked and forgets to make a pitstop at the trash.

Most times this isn’t a big deal. A couple days ago, when I was walking Danni to school, she spotted a crushed wad of candy on the ground right outside the playground. Before I could steer her away, she picked it up. Luckily I was with her so I could immediately steer her to the trash. The line for being a good citizen is drawn somewhere between picking up the used plastic spoon and the wad of candy, but I’m not sure where.

We have five vacuums at my house – a standard upright, a canister vacuum, a shop-vac, a 1 1/2-horsepower dust collector (to suck up sawdust from big power tools) and a small, cordless vacuum. Luckily, my six-year-old daughter Danni usually uses the smallest, cordless vacuum.

Last night my daughter was in the kitchen, my wife in the laundry room and I was in the bedroom, when I heard “ouch, ouch, ouch” coming from the kitchen. It wasn’t loud and there wasn’t any crying. I assumed Danni had stubbed her toe.

After I heard a couple more “ouch, ouch” I decided to inspect the situation. I was stunned when I walked into the kitchen.

Danni had been using our small, cordless vacuum to pick up some crumbs around the table. She was kneeling on the floor holding her long hair as it was being wound onto the beater bar of the vacuum.

She was bracing he arms against the vacuum keeping her head from being pulled closer to it. I quickly shut off the vacuum and started unwinding her hair. My wife came to the rescue as well and helped get Danni’s hair out.

After we were sure she was okay the obvious question came up – “what were you doing with your head so close to the vacuum?”

Danni said that she had seen a spider and wanted to suck it up, but it ran off and she was laying on the floor looking for it. I imagine her long hair hit the floor in front of the vacuum and she was being reeled in like a fish.

When it was over she had a small red spot on her scalp, several pieces of hair wrapper around the beater bar and a lot of after-the-fact crying.

I gave her a hug, let her know that I was very happy that she didn’t get hurt and asked her if she learned anything, she nodded yes. I tried not to laugh.

The condensed version of the story could go something like this:

Little miss Danni

sat on her fanny

looking for the spider that ran away.

Along came the beater

that tried to eat her and

plucked miss Danni’s hair away.

This morning my daughter, Danni, was singing “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.” I can’t blame her, the weather is a little confusing right now and it is a catchy tune. She was running through the classic lines naming the reindeer when she got to a reindeer I didn’t recognize – his name was “Comic” and boy did it make me laugh. I quickly realized she meant “Comet” and gently corrected her when she was done, but I like “Comic” better.

My daughter Danni has a strange habit of always smelling hand soap before she begins lathering her hands. After a few sniffs she offers the normal kid critique of the soap. Generally it’s a comparison to some type of berries or other fruit.

It used to annoy me a little because she has to do it every time she washes – including in the men’s public restroom at the local department store. As much as it irritated me I find myself doing it occasionally. I’m learning bad habits from my child.

Just for the record, I can’t identify the hand soap fragrance in the second-floor men’s bathroom outside the newsroom at the Tribune.

As part of Earth Day my daughter Danni created a mini mystery garden in her kindergarten class.

The idea was to take three seeds from several options and plant them in a small cup. When the seeds sprout they will find out what they planted, until then it is only a guess.

Danni’s teacher, Sara Hills, had the students guess what the seeds would grow into. Danni told me that they had to do their best to sound out the names of each plant. Her guesses are below. If any of the words stump you, feel free to email me and I will tell you what they are supposed to be. One hint – the first letter of each entry is just a place holder: A, B, C, etc.

Today is wacky hair day at Fort Lincoln Elementary in Mandan. My daughter, Danni, had some interesting ideas about how she wanted her hair. My wife, Laura, came up with the following idea and both were happy. That’s what is important. I think every workplace could benefit from a wacky hair day.

I think singing in the shower is a universal thing. I think before Americans got so darn involved in hygiene we did it in the rain. Heck, there was even a famous song about it – “Singing in the Rain.”

Danni, my six-year-old daughter has been belting out the Star Spangled Banner lately. Her first-grade class studied and learned the lyrics earlier this year. The song is full of difficult words and probably seems a little strange to young kids.

One thing unites all generations about the song is that it is painful to sing well. Almost nobody does a good job with our national anthem.

Consider a rock genius like Jimmy Hendrix – his brains really came to light when he made the decision not to sing the lyrics, just rip out the music to our beloved anthem.

Danni carries on the tradition by not providing the most inspirational performance of the anthem, but it’s worth a laugh. The tune is off through much of the song, just like her clothes, but the words are spot on. And I think she even got her ramparts clean. Enjoy.

This morning my daughter Danni was sick. Today the symptoms were bad enough for her to stay home from school. She’s six now, but I guess the “authorities” believe that she still isn’t old enough to stay home alone. Just kidding.

My wife and I decided to split the day – I would stay home in the morning and my wife would come back in the afternoon. The problem was that Laura couldn’t make it home in time, so my parents agreed to fill in the gap. 

When Danni found out she was staying home from school she perked up a little. The thought of hanging out playing with Dad all morning probably sounded pretty good. The grim reality of staying home hit her on three fronts.

First, when I am at home I’m still able to do most of my job. My title says it – online editor, most of my work is online. She wasn’t very impressed that I worked at least half of each hour – she doesn’t understand yet that someone must keep the anger flowing on the Tribune comments section.

Second, I needed to stop in at the Tribune from about 11:00 to 11:40 last night so I am tired. Part of my non-working time was spent napping. Not fun when you’re a kid, and in reality she probably needed the nap worse than I did (not that she took one).

The final straw was how she was feeling. After a few minutes of running around she was definitely feeling sick. Poor kid. The big question is whether Danni will stay home and take care of me when I am inevitably sick in a couple weeks.

Last weekend Danni and I were at the Mall of America. The amusement park is a great size for a six-year-old (actually, she was five then, her birthday is today). We rode a few rides with family friends Jason and Kari, who are from the Minneapolis area.

I shot a quick video with my point and shoot digital camera that shows something funny – Danni starts out very excited about the ride, but by the end she isn’t having much fun. It may have been a little too intense for her.