Take me Out to the Ballgame

At the beginning of the month, Charles mentioned that Spring Training Opening Day was Feb. 26. As luck would have it, he was off (thanks ER scheduling!) and I off-handedly mentioned that we should go. Cue Valentine's Day and lawn tickets for yesterday's D'Backs-Dodgers game in my card. Awwww. No, really, it was a great  the perfect present!

So, yesterday morning, we coated ourselves in SPF 50, loaded up the diaper bag, bought our maximum number of factory sealed bottles of water, and headed to the ballpark.

It was a glorious Arizona spring day. The kind of day that brought Spring Training to Arizona in the first place. 80ish. Wispy clouds that spelled a bit of the sun drench. Good game. Big crowds. Junk food. We plopped ourselves on baby blankets on the lawn and soaked it all in (well, not all since we all survived with nary a sunburn -- go us!). Charles and I had a great day, but Clare had a BLAST. She ran all over the sloped lawn seating area (which I'm sure is the toddler equivalent of running stadiums), ate more carbs in one sitting than she is ever allowed (crackers and French fries are a balanced meal, right?!?), saw other babies, took a mini-nap in her stroller, clapped right along everyone else, and learned to say, "Yay Dime-baks!"

I only managed to snap two pictures before we dragged our sun-soaked selves home, exhausted but content in the way that only a day of fun in the sun achieves.

Lawn sitter

Stroller napper

7 Quick Takes, Vol. 55

After my week-long blogging hiatus, I'm back for my weekly 7QT fix. Joining Jen, of course.

1. Charles finished up the working portion of his rotation of nights in the ER, and now has a little time off. Which, paired with a leeeetle too much time watching NBC's glorious mornings of covering allll the figure skating, has left me slacking on the ol' blog. Where did the week go, exactly?!? Anyway, we are enjoying knowing that we have another lovely week off ahead of us before he hits the OR for his next rotation. Plus, that week includes Spring Training Opening Day, and we're excited for a little fun in the AZ sun (and to take advantage of Spring Training while we can!). Sorry in advance to our fellow lawn sitters if you're joined briefly by a squirrley 19 month old. And sorry everywhere that's neither AZ or FL. We may well be joining you soon enough.

Amazing what 12 months does to a kid!!

2. Which leaves me with the subject of temptation -- I want to try to not fail at Jen's blogging challenge, since I only made it to 5/7 last go 'round, and it would be a good chance to make myself actually write a couple of posts that have existed only in my head, buuuuuut . . . let's be honest. I'll probably at least try. I guess I'll let you know officially tomorrow.

3. So, I wrote about Valentine's Day last week. It's noteworthy mainly because Clare thought it was the best morning ev-ah. Charles came home with flowers and the morning was full of cards and presents and family time. So, bien sur, I'm prepared to photo dump.

Texting this was as close as I got to sending out the real deal

Tea with Daddy

Opening presents with Daddy

Her very own "fla-wows"

4. #3 was a two-for-the-price-of-one, let's let honest.

5. February in Arizona means it's time to get your planting on, lest it get too hot and fry your tomatoes. We're only doing tomatoes and peppers this year, but Clare thought planting them (ie "gahw-den-ing", ie throwing potting soil everywhere) was the best activity since Valentine's Day morning.

6. This is my new favorite picture of the Bear. She got a bunch of new "dwesses" this weekend, and spent most of Sunday ob-sess-ed. I was trying to get a cute shot of her carrying them around, but ended up with this one instead.

Dresses, dirt and mischief. That's Clare for ya!

7. I can't believe how close I'm getting to the end of this pregnancy! 34 weeks!! Things are getting really, really real. I've most definitely reached the random lumps from random baby parts stage of bump-dom. My cousin blessed me tremendously by handing down her son's baby wardrobe, so now Mr. Man has the closet of a real fashionista -- never mind that he's sharing said closet (and dresser) with his sister. (I think there should be an implied ewwwwwwww, even though I suspect these two will be partners in crime.) Anyway, I never got around to updating last week with a pic, so you get two weeks worth of comparison shots today! Lucky you!

Have a lovely weekend!!

7 Quick Takes, Vol. 19 (on Saturday)

Wherein I link up with Jen via Grace and attempt to ramble for 7 whole takes just to keep my own record going. Yeah, I'm that cool.

1. So many prayers for Jen and her baby boy. I'm praying hard. You should too.

2. I have survived tree consecutive days of rush-rush-rush alllll day long. I'm now exhausted, and have pulled up to the couch. The D'Backs-Dodgers game is on. I'm ready for a quiet night in.

Chillaxin' and watchin' the game. AKA what I expect the evening to look like.

3. Tomorrow, we are celebrating my cousin's 4th baby and 3rd little boy. I'm so excited, and I'm so blessed to be part of her life. It does, however, mean a little more running around.

4.

Exhausted from her daily DVD organization. Choosing between rom-coms and 80s music is hard work, people.

5. Rom-Coms and music stuff are what ended up in the DVD collection when Charles and I combined at the time of marriage. Our mutual taste is not actually that eclectic. Also, I don't remember the last time I purchased a DVD. Do people still do that?

6. I am too tired to think of anything smart or witty, so I'll share Clare looking at the fish:

7. I hope your weekend is really, really blessed.

Happy Birthday!

Happy, Happy, Happy Birthday to the best husband

and father

a couple of girls could ask for!

We love you!!

Love,
Ash and Clare

P.S. Since we're celebrating with a trip to the ballpark this afternoon! Go D'Backs!
 

Beisbol

So many attractive, cheezy and cliche titles for my post about Clare's first baseball game . . . so I ditched them all and went with el espanol.

n-e-way . . .

Saturday, we took advantage of the superbly perfect weather and met some friends for some Spring Training action. Just one of the perks of living in the ol' AZ (or Florida, I guess).

Our diva

It was Clare's first game, and, as far as parents instilling values in our children is concerned, love of baseball (preferably the National League and especially preferably the D'backs) is right up there behind love of God and country. Muy importante.

We were totally "those parents" with our sun-protection obsession.

Basking in the sun

Chillin' like villains

My new Target-knock-off-no-shoes-for-Africa shoes

It was a fantastic day . . . good great perfect weather, good friends, junk food, a game we kinda watched. Clare had a blast playing on the grass (for spectators, not players!), catching a nap on Daddy, trying to get into the soda.

A bottle of soda is the same as a bottle of milk, right?

Nap time

Oh yeah, there was a game.

After the game, we all had dinner at a nearby restaurant, which is all touristy/cowboy/"authentic," so of course was yummy and tons of fun (with a great view that was not captured digitally). We did see a bull and put her in the children's menu hat/headband for long enough to snap a picture.

Not impressed by the bull

Or by her headgear

 The day maybe ended with accidental egg-eating and the fun that follows and red Gatorade and Benadryl and general misery for the ol' Mama, but it was a win for the home team overall. Sorry...couldn't resist the bad baseball cliches for toooooo long.

Baseball's newest fan