Mariners' Day

We headed down to Seattle for our annual family Mariners' game. Ollie was so excited to sport his Mariners' hat at a real game. He kept getting confused and calling it a football game. When we would correct him, he would say, "Oh, yeah, yeah. Baseball Mariners' game."

We lucked out with a gorgeous day. We had great seats along first base and fortunately we were in the shade. Even with great seats, although I don't feel like I got to watch much of the game, considering I was trying to wrangle two children, one of whom had skipped his nap the day before and getting pretty cranky towards the end of the game. Sometimes I wonder why we decide to take our children on such outings. Seems a little futile at times.

The game happened to be on September 11th, which was the 10th anniversary of the Twin Towers coming down. There was a tribute to the police, fire, and emergency personnel who risked, and some of whom lost their lives responding to the scene of September 11, 2001. There were bagpipe players playing Amazing Grace and I got a little choked up. I didn't know anyone in New York and the tragedy of that day didn't affect me personally, but I just felt very emotional remembering the events of that day - watching the surreal video footage from England, where I happened to be at the time. It was good to have a moment to reflect on those memories, because I haven't spent much time thinking about that day.

On a lighter note, we got some goodies at the Team Store and ate some yummy (and completely unhealthy) food. Ollie was really into clapping and cheering along with the crowd. He was also entertaining the folks around us by busting a move to the music. He is getting to the age where it is fun to see him enjoy more "adult" activities, even if his attention span is much more limited.

Henry, who has entered the distracted nurser phase, was refusing to nurse under the nursing cover (can't say I blame him). I am all for nursing in public, but I don't particularly enjoy having my nipple and breast continually exposed to the strangers sitting around me, most of whom were seated a meager ten inches from me. So, in order to get the kid, who was hungry, to nurse, I ended up nursing him in the "family bathroom." I did it standing up, because there was no way in hell I was sitting on that toilet seat. Fun times.

Ollie being coy.

This picture took some major coaching to get Ollie to cooperate. Little bugger.

Henry's first Mariners' game, complete with hand-me-down hat. Poor second child.

Ollie and Dad.

Ollie got to play at the playground at the ball park. They limit how many kiddos can come in at a time and Ollie was having a great time until it started to reach capacity. With all the bigger kiddos running around, he managed to climb to the top of the enclosed playground and then absolutely freaked out at the top, refusing to budge and crying hysterically. I had Henry in the ERGO, so I couldn't climb up there to get him. After a failed attempt to coach my hysterical child down (which was excruciating), I had to have the playground attendant climb in to retrieve Ollie. She was very nice and sent him down the slide, which happened to be the closest exit. Poor little guy was sobbing uncontrollably. I felt terrible. Fortunately, he recovered relatively quickly. Ah, the joys of family outings.