Game night

We had a family night out at the baseball game tonight. We talked about it this morning, but spotted possible rain clouds off and on all day, so we weren't sure until after work.

Jeff needed to stay later at work, so I went to pick up Biscuit at day care. We were walking out to the car, and I said, "Hey. How would you like to go to a baseball game?"

"BASEBALL?" Biscuit yelled, then jerked my arm and started running toward the car.

Biscuit and I got to the game first. On game nights, the street right beside the baseball stadium is closed off with a police car at either end. And every time we go to a game, we have to take a walk past the police cars and talk about the flashing blue lights and the badges on the doors. There's usually an ambulance there, too, so we have to talk about that as well.

Biscuit will get in free until he's 5, and Jeff uses his press pass because he does work in and amongst hanging out with Biscuit and me. So when we go, I'm the only one who has to buy a ticket.

Biscuit and I walked through the turnstile to get in, and the first thing he said was that he would like to go to the playground for a while. I was still feeling guilty about lying to Biscuit, so I gave in, and we went to the playground.

Last year, I had seen a statue of the mascot holding a bat horizontally right outside the playground. Without ever walking over to the playground, I assumed kids had to be at least that tall to get in. That's how the rides at the fair and amusement parks work. But I was wrong. You can't be taller than that and still get in. The playground is made for little kids, so I had been telling Biscuit a falsehood ever since he could ask about it.

Well, it's SUPPOSED to be made for little kids. At some point tonight, the rules went out the window, and the playground was flooded with big kids. Rowdy, noisy, rude, pushy big kids. It's like they all had been smoking crack or something! They were pushing down the little kids. I saw more than one little kid get his or her hand stepped on as they were climbing onto the steps to go down the slide. Biscuit was climbing the rock wall at one point when a big kid decided to come down the same wall. He almost stepped on Biscuit's fingers, and he ended up having to jump over Biscuit's head to keep from knocking him down. When he took his flying leap, he ended up knocking down another little boy. It was pandemonium!

I was so impressed with Biscuit's agility. He scaled the rock wall like he had been doing it for years. There was one climbing wall that had a chain running up the middle. The object is to hang onto the chain as you pull yourself up the wall. And Biscuit climbed right up.

I was scared to watch him, but I couldn't take my eyes off him at the same time. I was so proud of him. He was mostly nice to the other little kids. I had to remind him a couple of times that you go down slides, not up. I also had to remind him to wait his turn a couple of times. Honestly, I wish someone had been there to tell the big kids those things!

For the second time since becoming a mother, I gave the evil eye to a kid. The first time was when a kid at Biscuit's day care hit him in the head with a toy car, right in front of me. And tonight, I offered up my best stink eye to a girl who started shoving Biscuit's shoulder as he was climbing over a piece of equipment. She shoved him the third or fourth time and yelled, "MOVE, BOY!" As the words were coming out of her mouth, she glanced up at me. I took one small step forward, crossed my arms, blew out a big breath, pursed my lips and stared her down. Little Miss Priss turned around and climbed right back down the other side.

And do I feel guilty about intimidating a kid? Nope. Not at all!

Anyway, I felt a little bad that I had never taken Biscuit into the playground before, but once I took him in, he didn't want to leave. We stayed in there so long that by the time Jeff was ready to go downstairs to get his interviews, the game was close to being over, and I didn't even know the score.

Jeff covers the team as part of his beat, so he needed to talk to a couple of players. The clubhouse and manager's office are downstairs under the grandstands, so Biscuit and I usually walk to the bottom of the stairs with him and wait there.

That was our plan tonight, but then I remembered that they have a fireworks show every Friday. I thought about walking up the stairs and finding a spot to watch, but Jeff was in the manager's office, and I didn't want him to wonder where we were.

Then I realized that we could walk to the end of the tunnel where the players come on and off the field, and we'd have a great viewing spot. I scooped up Biscuit and we walked out. I think some of the people in the stands were disappointed because they were glancing over the railings down into the tunnel to look for players. Instead, they saw Biscuit and me. Hey, Biscuit is cuter than most of those players anyway.

Just as the fireworks show started, this guy came running down the tunnel ramp. He got right to the gate that goes out onto the field and stopped. He stared up into the sky, and as the fireworks started, he got this huge grin on his face. I hate to sound cliche, but he looked like a kid on Christmas morning.

As we were leaving, I described the guy to Jeff and asked who he was. He was wearing street clothes, so I didn't know if he was a player or not. Come to find out, he's a pitcher from Cuba. And according to Jeff, he's a big kid. The guy seemed to enjoy those fireworks so much.

As Biscuit and I started walking back up the tunnel, the guy spoke to me, then he looked at Biscuit, pointed at him and said, "Heeeeey" in sort of a growly voice. Biscuit got a big grin on his face, and all I could think was that I hope the guy becomes a famous player so I can remind Biscuit about their encounter.

We had a good time tonight, but we left our house at 9 a.m. this morning and just got home (at 10:56). That's quite a day! I hope we can all sleep in tomorrow morning. (Did you hear that, Biscuit?!?)