First-Ever Twins Game

Well for us anyway. On the second day of our long Labor Day weekend we made our way downtown (for all of you Chicagoans - it takes like fifteen minutes for us to be downtown - nice, huh?) for the Twins game.

They were playing against Kansas City that day and Aunt Jill is a huge baseball fan. It doesn't matter whether her favorite (Cubbies, duh) are playing or well if it's the Twins vs. Kansas City.


Even with Coley screaming in terror from our nose-bleed seats, her

concentration was not to be broken.

Too bad I can't say the same for the ever-many annoyed Twins' fans sitting all around us - even across the aisle to the left and to the right.

I have to admit, I was experiencing a bit of vertigo myself. After rejecting food and drink and darn near everything else we offered him (we even broke our own rule and offered him soda - I hang my head in shame even as I write this), Cole finally found his groove.

Just as the eighth inning was coming to an end. Here's some pics from that peaceful time during which Scott pulled out all his tricks to keep our boy entertained!





At the end of the game (for those who'd like to know the Twins lost - after having scored only once though Kansas City didn't do much better - 6-1), some people from the other end of our row and down a bit, paused as they noticed Coley still sitting there. The woman looked amazed as she wondered aloud, "He made it through the whole game?" I sighed and said, "Yep." She continued, "Did he ever nap?" I sighed again and said, "Nope." Her eyes grew huge and then settled into an expression of great sympathy. Scott said, "Wait, you could hear him from all the way over there?" She and I laughed and then I said, "Honey, everyone from two aisles over could hear him." And the lady along with the elderly man she was with laughed heartily as the unspoken thought of so many passed, "I heard that." But kidding aside, we were proud of our son for completing what we thought would be an impossible mission: he survived all nine innings of his first-ever MLB baseball game from a death-defying height no less. Way to go little man!

Guess what, Daddy won tickets to another game this Saturday. Don't worry Cole, we'll be much closer to the ground this time!

Minnesota State Fair

Whew! The time has just flown by. I barely know where to start in order to catch everyone up on what we've been doing with ourselves lately. Okay, I'll start with Labor Day Weekend. It was jam-packed in honor of Cole's Aunt Jill's visit. There always seems to be a lot going on in Minnesota so it's never difficult to entertain visitors (hint, hint). Going into the weekend, we left plenty of time for whim with only the state fair and a Twins game on the 'Must Do' list.

The Minnesota State Fair. Wow, I've never seen a fair get so much television coverage. Coley and I watched entire news broadcasts from and about the state fair for days. From our cozy view on the couch it looked exciting, huge, and at times mystifying. We couldn't wait to go but we were patient and waited until the last weekend so that Aunt Jill would be able to experience it with us as well.

First off, Cole was blown away by his first-ever bus ride. He didn't know which way to look. I mean there's the whole being up high and able to look down into the cars of strangers, and then there's the great diversity amongst your fellow bus riders, and there are all those loud, mysterious noises as the bus bounces along. It soon became apparent that Cole was partial to the enormous bus windows that provided him a cushy view of roads, overpasses, and the interior of all those cars. His Dad did catch him long enough to take snag this photo marking Cole's first-ever bus ride.

Once we were on firm ground again Cole was not about to sit in his stroller. He wanted to walk amongst the people and feel the gravel crunching beneath his feet. But that would have to wait until later. As we passed through the main gates, we were blown away by the sheer volume of everything. There were people for miles and miles no matter where you looked. There were the familiar, and not-so-familiar, scents swirling about to tease our senses with memories of past visits to fairs and new memories to come.

Then, of course, there were all those booths to peak our curiosity. Booths with brightly colors hats and noisy toys for kids. Booths and barns with information and freebies for the grown-ups. Barns full of animals - a chicken barn, a cow barn, a horse barn, just to name a few.

Absolutely amazing. Looking at it from Cole's point of view, made it seem all that more impressive.

He was tickled by the chickens and he was captivated by the horses.

That's his hand petting the horse's nose.

Scott pulled him back just before Cole stuck his hand up the horse's nostril. Good call.

I think the cows puzzled him more than anything - they were just sitting there quietly watching him as if he was the exhibit rather than the other way around.
Oh, but then there was the carnival area of the fair. At this point Cole's preferred mode of transportation was atop his dad's shoulders and his usual expression was open-mouthed awe as his mind was blown left and right.

Here are some more shots of things that caught our eye. Check out the french fry stand that's been serving fries to perfection for 35 years now from that very location.


Or, how about that slide ride? They say it's worth the hour-long wait. Guess we'll find out next year.
Now, if you were to look up you would see, from all corners of the fair, these colorful cable cars zipping along in order to give their patrons a real bird's eye view.

But you know what really makes a fair great? The people. The people you're with that's where it's at.

Scott's cousin Liz met up with us and gave us the grand tour highlighting her favorite bits like the Gizmo sandwich and the apple-cicle (I don't recall what it was really called) which was soo refreshing.

A real group favorite was most definitely the bucket of chocolate chip cookies being sold everywhere by Aunt Martha. Someone should give that woman her own day for all the goodness she packs into those sweet morsels. Everywhere we went you could see people toting their overflowing buckets of her cookies. Yum!

While we were partaking in our apple-based treats,

Cole surprised us all by falling asleep.

I thought for sure he would wake up as soon as we left the air-conditioned pavilion but no, that nap reached heroic heights despite noise, smells, flashing lights, and color. An amazing thing to behold.

But like everything else, it too came to an end, and Cole woke up wanting more. More sights, more smells, more people to stare at, and for sure more cookies.

So after a quick goodbye to Cousin Liz and a much dwindled crowd, Cole eagerly accepted Aunt Jill's hand and felt the crunch of fair gravel beneath his feet for the first time.
All that walking really must've taken a lot out of Cole. As the sunset, he began to act a little zany. He started humming, "I Wear My Sunglasses At Night," and asked us to take his picture. Now, believe me he is quite the ham but this seemed over the top even for him.

All in all it was a great time at the fair. Another big first for our Minnesota-honed family. See you all there next year!

Boy Takes Park by Storm

As we have mentioned before, we really like the
park near our house, and we take every opportunity to bring our little man to the park and let him loose.

Well, before the recent bout of rain settled over the upper mid-west, we finally made the effort to take the boy to the water park part of our park.

Now, it always seemed to me that every time we passed it on our way to the play area, we would see lots of kids and lots of parents, but most notable was the fact that the dads were in the water and the moms were in groups gabbing. As you can see, Coley wasn't the only big boy in the splash park.

Also worth mentioning, that water is pretty cold and most of the downward facing jets come out pretty hard, painfully hard in my opinion.

Anyway, every time that I set him down, he made a B-line to his Mom. So, after a few minutes of water-made excitement, we headed over to the play area.


Our little man was much more at home there. He didn't hesitate to visit all his favorite things. The low bridge...

the high bridge...

the rock climbing wall...

the slide...

and then he spotted his favorite thing, the swing...

No, fooling, this kid really likes that swing. As you can see, he is in the big-kid swing and holds on tight and used tongue-focus to manage his momentum. When he was younger, he would ride the swing foreverrrr, but now that he has to hold on, he only rides as long as his arms can hold him, which, I am proud to say, is fairly long, a couple of other kids riding long, but not quite as long as he expected when he realized that throwing your head back to watch the trees above was fun, and just a wee bit more G-force than being fully upright, which quickly becomes quickly prone. That didn't happen on this visit. On this visit, he never let go.

Of all the pictures so far at the park, one of my favorite has to be this last one. I think, once again, Melanie captured the essence of our Coley. This was taken through the view hole in a big blue tunnel connecting the lower and upper parts of the play ground equipment. Cole thinks it is a gas to see us through the windows. I hope you like it as much as I do.

The Boys Take a Bike Ride or Cole Takes a 3-hour Nap Punctuated by Art Appreciation

So, to give the Momma a rest on a warm Sunday
afternoon, me and the boy decided to head out on a little bike trip. We have been wanting to do this ever since our first excursion on Father's Day, but so much has gone on that we never got the chance.

Cole put on his helmet (getting better at keeping it on), and sat back to enjoy our little jaunt to the near-by lake trail (there's always a nearby lake, they are everywhere).

Anyway, we headed out, picked up the trail, checked one map, and Cole was out cold.

So, instead of riding to the lakes to play at the beach, we rode past them, and continued on down to the city. It was a nice day and a nice, quiet ride.

Cole was asleep for this little retreat in the heart of the city.

But he woke up once we reached the sculpture garden down by the Walker Art Museum. After some fruit snacks on the garden wall and a bit of time to orientate himself, he was off to explore.

This thing . . .
And, this thing. . .

Cheap Labor

So, we haven't had to mow the lawn in a long time because the places that we live, other folks have been taking care of that sort of weekly chore.

But, when we moved into the new house, we had

to start mowing the lawn. We have this great old push mower with a rotary blade that makes a raspy sort of metalic noise like a bunch of scissors repeatedly cutting over and over.

The grass spills out the back and doesn't fling rocks and sticks at you like the power mowers do. I really enjoyed those things growing up.

Well, as luck would have it, we found someone to take care of the lawn mowing for us. Cole.

He was facinated by the mechanism from the outset, and it was only a couple of mowings later that he felt secure enough to stop walking along side me and start doing the pushing himself.

At first, he let his old man help him push, but later, I could only use a finger to help push. We stopped after half the lawn. He considered it done. Even with the missed patchs.

After a quick inspection of his handwork, it

was back to Mom (who was watching from

the stoop) and a well-deserved bottle of lemonade.

We're thinking of having more, just to build a small contingent of low-cost works to do our yard chores.

Grandmas Look the Other Way

I'm serious. Grandmothers need not read nor view the following entry. I've warned you, so if you look at the pictures, don't, I mean, don't tell me how dangerous it is. Seriously, I know, but...

boy, is there some stuff that your kid

does that you are so amazed by it as a

father that you don't actually notice that

it could kill him. My kid climbed a ladder.

In the pictures it might look like I helped, but, no. The kid climbed up behind me when I was trimming the tree in the front yard, and then he sort of shoved me aside as he realized the potential height that he could reach. He really likes the view from six feet up.

Anyway, it was a one time deal for him, much to his chagrin, but the parent in me kicked in eventually.