It’s that time of year…….BASEBALL SEASON!
Baseball is a big deal in my family. I played for 7 years before switching to softball (and hating it), my brother played for MANY years, Field of Dreams is one of my favorite movies, we went to COUNTLESS games growing up, the A’s are the best around, and there’s nothing like day baseball in the summer time to make you have the best day. Now I get to work for the A’s too and it’s pretty much a dream – getting paid to watch my favorite sports team, ahhhhhhhh 🙂
Many people at work and who I’m friends with wonder when will be the first game that I take each girl to, and the answer is very simple: Opening Day. I go EVERY year with my dad like religion. So it’s only fitting that such a special game with my dad becomes a special game for my girls. 2 years ago I did the same thing for Zoe
And last year she went to Opening Day as well. I’m hoping to make it a tradition to take the girls every year. We shall see if I can keep it up.
But back to Merritt! 🙂
Last Monday was Opening Day, and therefor we made the pilgrimage to the Coliseum. I was a lot more nervous for Merritt’s first game than I was for Zoe’s – Merritt REALLY likes her 6:45 bedtime. She can be pushed to 7, but she usually likes it earlier. And she’s like Chris – a lot of stimulus makes her very tired and overwhelmed. Naturally I was a bad parent and took her anyway 🙂 I got really lucky and her nap schedule got all messed up that day. She took a long morning nap, then fussed going down for her second nap, so she didn’t fall asleep for nap #2 till about 4:30. Normally I would have just said fuck it and had her not take the second nap because it was so late, but this was perfect – my dad picked us up at 5:30 and we headed off.
When we went with Zoe we ate at the restaurant inside the park and got there early, but this time with Merritt’s nap and the parking fiasco (we were probably among the last 20 cars that got into the stadium before the lot was full) we walked into the stadium with only about 20 minutes before the game started
We got lucky with some seriously awesome weather. Hooray!
We got to our seats and settled in
Look very closely next to my dad – that is a DRUNK ASS 70 year old. Like, SUPER drunk. And a bitch. She had both elbows on the armrests and my dad was basically sitting sideways to not bother her (because she was so annoying) and she kept insisting that he was elbowing her the whole time. When my dad had Merritt on his lap making sure she was facing us, the lady was positive that the baby was kicking her. She also told him that we had no business bringing my kids to a baseball game. WHAT?! Listen you fucking bitch, BASEBALL IS FOR FAMILIES AND IS FOR KIDS. My dad finally told her really politely when she kept harassing him, “Why don’t you have another drink so you fall asleep.” BAHAHAHAHAHA. I love my dad. Luckily she left in the THIRD INNING. Obviously SHE has no business being at a baseball game.
I’m not going to lie – the game was stressful. Zoe was really excited to get to go because she knows that, “Mommy works at the baseball game!” But it’s hard having an almost 3 year old sit fairly still (we put her in the seat between me and my dad so that if she was flailing all about she was only whacking into us and not bothering anyone else). Merritt was happy as a clam to sit on my lap
Or to have Zoe play with her
But I wondered how long she would be able to last. Zoe was totally fine falling asleep in the Ergo, but Merritt loves her crib – she hasn’t fallen asleep in my arms since she was about 1 month old. She’s very particular about where she likes to sleep. I resolved that I should be very pleased if we got through the 6th inning (about 9 o’clock). I should consider that a crazy success.
Zoe needed a bit of coaching to get there
But once my dad took her inside to the bar she was very happy. Yes, the bar. She liked being inside a lot more than being outside for some reason – normally in life for her it’s the opposite and nothing makes her more happy than being outside.
Merritt happily sat on my lap and we enjoyed the game together for a an inning or so by ourselves. It was actually a really nice moment. Much of the game I had been stressed out taking care of the kiddos, wanting to make sure my dad had a good time, annoyed at that bitch bothering my dad (I was telling my boss about her at work the next day and he said I should have texted him her seat and he would have gotten her kicked out, hehehehehehe). It made me wonder if I’ll keep taking them to Opening Day each year. I treasure that game with my dad. Baseball is really special for me and my dad. I loved playing baseball growing up and having that bond with him. I loved playing with the boys and feeling tough and having my dad support me so much. I loved going to games with him. I still love going to games with him. It’s a tradition that many people who know me know about. Baseball + my dad = happiness. And I want to pass that tradition on to my girls. But man, it is HARD to really enjoy a game when you have little ones with you, and I wonder how much THEY enjoy it. I’d love for Zoe and Merritt to be able to say they’ve been to EVERY Opening Day their whole lives. But I also don’t want them to feel burdened by that. If they end up not liking baseball it’ll make me sad – but I really don’t want them to feel forced to like something because I love it so much. There are also 80 other home games every season, and although I work A LOT of them, I can always go to other games with just me and my dad. Because even though I’m 30, I still like my father/daughter time – that guy’s the best 🙂
I hope my girls like it too.