First for Eliot!

Three weeks ago, tickets arrived in the bundle of mail. Since then it's been a twinge of excitement in the back of my mind. There's only a couple weeks left in the Cardinal's season and I hadn't been to a game yet. This is highly unusual! Not to mention, being able to take Eliot to his first baseball game. When I woke up yesterday morning, I felt like a little kid.

This may happen a lot over the next year, but there's so many experiences I've been looking forward to for a long time. Taking our small family to Busch Stadium was one of those. So much so that when we walked through the hallway and into the stadium, I got a little teary. I think Russ was pretty excited also since he mentioned the phrase "your first game" about a hundred times on our way in. First he called his parents just to let them know we wouldn't be home tonight since we're taking him to...his first game. Then buying peanuts outside...for his first game. Then handing the lady our tickets...to his first game. You get it. It was stinkin' cute, in a masculine, sporty kind of way, of course.

We went to the game "holding lightly not tightly" to the idea of staying through the whole thing. We just weren't sure what Eliot's endurance would be, especially given that it was a night game starting at 7:10 and his bed time is 8. So we went in hoping he'd at least make it a few innings. In the words of Russ, "Eliot outlasted 3 Cardinals pitchers!" In fact, he made it all the way to the 7th inning stretch! We were quite impressed with him. The people around us were good sports and kept laughing when it appeared as though Eliot was yelling at the players. He spent his evening like most other fans, yelling and eating. And, in case you were wondering, Busch Stadium does sell milk at the family pavilion.







Eliot began to fade in the 6th inning. He would cuddle up with Russ until the crowd reacted to something and then he would catch a second wind for the game. After that moment wore off, he'd go back to snuggle time.


And, of course, the ride home looked like this...