Finn's First Baseball Game

I like baseball, and I've been to many games in my life. Probably between 100 and 200 games, but that is as close as I can estimate it. Out here the San Francisco Giants stadium (AT&T Park) is outstanding, but the Oakland A's stadium (something something Colosseum) isn't so great. But there is also the San Jose Giants Class A minor league team, which is the closest to our house. They play in a small 1940s stadium that seats probably 5000. And the tickets are cheap!

I decided it was time to take Finn to his first game, to see how he liked it. I'm not yet decided on whether or not Finn "has to" like baseball, but I think it would be fun if he did. We went to a 4 p.m. game, which was the first of a double-header. Here we are just before we left to go home, after the 3rd inning of the 2nd game. (It was bedtime.)

So, the story: After downing a frozen lemonade during the first two innings, he was getting pretty bored, but I still managed to point out the dugouts (below ground level!) and Gigante, the gorilla mascot (amazing!). Given his restlessness, I was thinking the trip maybe wasn't the best idea. We left to go check out the bounce-house area (yes, there was an entire are) and we spent about an hour down there before returning to our seats with nachos and a brat (the sausage, not the boy).

We saw a 7-run inning with a lot of action, and he liked the home run and the guys throwing the ball around the field, and into the outfield. It was pretty hard for him to follow the ball off of the bat, but seemed to have an OK idea of what was going on. After that long inning we headed back to the bounce-house area for another 90 minutes (at least!). Oh, he and I also managed to "blow it up" with Gigante, when we walked by his seat. That was a big deal. Here is what Gigante looks like:


They had all manner of bouncy things. The standard bounce-house (what I call a jumpy-jumpy), the bounce slide (see above), a few others, and the interesting bounce-vacuum t-ball set. Below is a video of Finn hitting. It took him awhile but his last few swings were quite good. His mom taught him everything he knows. On the last one he hit the ball into a small target and won us two free tickets to a future game!

A Swing and a ...? from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

After getting all the crazies out, we made it back to some seats for another 2 innings, where Finn had his *first ever* cotton candy and downed a giant bottle of apple juice. The cotton candy was another highlight.

It was a fun and very memorable trip. Maybe we can do it again before the season is up. He picked up a lot about the game, but I'm a little worried he thinks that inflatables are a big part of any professional baseball game....

A Gentle Soul

For those of you who don't know Graham very well, I think it is fair to say that he is a quite a bit different than Finn. Maybe not as different as my brother and I (Hi Justin!) but they are very distinct. Graham is a sensitive little guy who wants to make you happy. He takes slights very personally. He will give you as many hugs and kisses as you need, and will ask you for them. He dances. This is one of the cutest movies ever.

Dancing to Ella from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Actually Finn is a lot more sensitive in some particular ways. If Finn hurts himself he will wail and let you know about it for 20 minutes. And many band-aids will be required. Graham will forget that a bump or accident ever happened in about 20 seconds, and just go on his merry way. The children-addled brain I have makes it hard to sensibly compare the two, mostly because it is hard for me (already) to remember what Finn was like 2 years ago. But that's the beauty of the blog! :)

The most important news of the week is that we got Graham a big boy bed, very much like Finn's, from IKEA. The two boys are back in the same bedroom, probably for many years to come! He had been sleeping in the pack-and-play in the office for the past several months, because that was easy, and the boys would never wake each other up. He's now slept in his bed back-to-back nights, and he loves it. Finn has been showing him the ropes, including the VERY KEY rule that you can't get out of bed to come wake up mommy and daddy until the moon light comes on at 6:15. That is the key to everyone's sanity. When we're in the Midwest in August, Graham will be too big for the pack-and-plays there, so we had to get him trained sleeping on a bed before then. Finn likes having his brother in their room, but he needs to stop piling so many stuffed animals on Graham when Graham is trying to go to sleep.

For comparison, here is Finn sleeping in his bed from the same time of year in 2009, but he was about 6 weeks younger.

Below is one of my favorites from two week ago---Graham sitting with Cato, our neighbors' cat. Cato looks just like Mona, but likes attention from small people more than Mona does. Just a very peaceful scene.

Here are brothers being brothers:

We visited Alex and Laura up in San Francisco a couple weeks ago, and during brunch the boys each got balloon creations. Graham got a flower, but the balloon artist suggested it could also be a hat. I think he was right.

Finn's Favorite Outfit

This is Finn's Favorite Outfit.
The shirt is his "tiger shirt," which says something about a "Desert Safari Route." The shorts are red, white, blue, and yellow plaid. The socks are black, white, and grey camo. The underwear (yes, the underwear are part of the Favorite Outfit) are Incredibles. Finn would be happy to show them to you, but they look pretty much like these.

Last week we had a fresh load of laundry and Finn was excited to wear the Favorite Outfit, but could not find the underwear. All morning routines were derailed, but fortunately Jonathan found them and order was restored to the universe.

The Favorite Outfit is recognized at school. One of his teachers asked him, on last week's near-miss underwear day, "Hey Finn, got your favorite outfit on today?" then turned to speak to another child. When she turned back, she discovered that he'd pulled his shorts down to his knees to proudly show the room the Favorite Underwear. Classy.

Sometimes other shirts get the honor being "my other favorite shirt," but it doesn't seem to stick. And there's not even a close second in the other categories. Fortunately, we still manage to get him dressed on those days...

New stuff

We have been acquisitive little magpies lately. Frugal ones, though. Thing we have gotten free, yard-sale-cheap, or on extended loan lately include: a trike, a deep freeze, a wine fridge, a hammock frame, 2 hermit crabs, a bookshelf, an end table for my office, and a toy chainsaw. I'm particularly excited about the freezer, because, as I've been telling anyone who will listen, I can now buy half-pigs with impunity.

Here's one of the crabs before they burrowed under the sand to either begin molting or to die. Time will tell.


The trike was supposed to be for Graham, but it turned out to be too big. So here's another short list - things recently purchased for full price, but totally worth it: scooter-bike thing for Graham, a picnic table, an old half-wine-barrel (in which we've planted a dwarf lemon tree and some tasty lettuces) and a hammock for the hammock frame.



Also, I believe the boys would say we are getting every penny's worth of what we pay for daycare. Graham so loves his favorite teacher, Ben, that he often asks about him over the weekend. Yesterday when we came to get him he ran towards me calling "Ben! Ben!" instead of the usual "Mommy." He switched gears after a few seconds and I tried not to take it personally.