Ballpark baby

Asher and I are back in Cambridge and trying to process our time with family and friends and adjust to being in Cambridge again. (More difficult than I anticipated!) I hope to share a few fun stories of our time in Oklahoma (and Boston). We had such a terrific time! Asher and I stayed with my sister Cara for a few days (okay, more than a few... As in, they were probably ready to give us the boot by the time we finally left!) It's baseball season for my nephews so we wanted to watch them play. One evening we headed to Rylan's scrimmage. It was at a nice ballpark that had playground equipment scattered between baseball fields. It was practically the 3rd inning by the time we got Asher off the toy train and to the bleachers. He was having a blast! Turns out, little league scrimmages happen during a toddlers dinner time. I had taken lots of food and drink for Asher and attempted to feed him there. He promptly threw his apple in the dirt, smeared peanut butter all over my jacket and crumbled rice cakes into pieces. I offered him several different things, trying to figure out what might actually make it into his mouth. About this time, the people behind us started laughing and heckling me, asking me what else could I possibly have in that bag?! A Subway sandwich? A couple of slices of pizza? Hey, a mama's gotta be prepared!

Another weekend, both of my nephews had baseball tournaments in the city and we decided to tag along. (Since I'm all flexible and
go-with-the-flow these days! ;)) We had a full day at the ballpark, with a short break in the middle for Asher to take a snooze. We got to watch Dalton play some exciting baseball and get some really good hits. There were some openings in the cinderblock of the dugout and Asher kept sticking his face in and yelling, "Dalto, Dalto?" Dalton would stick his hand through and play with him. But sometimes Dalt would be busy with other things, like eating 100 Starbursts, begging his mom for a Dr Pepper instead of another water, or playing Minecraft on the iPhone... All things a 1st grader does during a baseball tournament. If this was going on when Asher called for Dalt, one of Dalton's teammates would yell, "Dalton! Your baby cousin!" and he would come running. :)

Between games, Dalton would take Asher on walks around the ballpark. They went to see other kids, find treasures and generally make mama anxious when they left my line of sight for more than a few seconds. If you've spent much time around Asher, you know that him willingly walking away from me and out of sight is a BIG deal. He has become so brave and just loves his cousins. And I think the feeling is mutual. At one point my sister Cara and I saw that Dalton's team was warming up and practicing together and when Cara asked Dalton why he wasn't over there, he said, "Mom! It's okay! I told my coach... I'm spending time with my cousin!"

Between games the big boys were sitting outside the dugout and Asher had to go get right in the middle of them. One boy helped him pile dirt all over another boy's cleat. I guess dirt is fun at any age. We stayed at the ballpark through dinner time, so I got the best the concession stand had to offer: baked potato with a side of shredded cheese. (I did have my Mary Poppins bag, but I was trying to hide my crazy after the last ball game experience...) I thought I would get Asher to sit down and neatly help him eat the baked potato with a fork. (This is where all the seasoned parents out there howl with laughter at my ignorance.) He wouldn't sit for a hot second… shoved two fistfuls of cheese into his mouth and ran off to play.

Asher came home sun-kissed, exhausted and filthy from head to toe. Let's just say there was some dirt in the bottom of the bathtub that night!