Respect the Schedule!

Jim came home from work on Friday ready for the weekend. He was in some serious Sera-withdrawal. She had ended up napping late in the day, and it was beautiful outside, so we decided to test out a baseball game.

First, I should backtrack. Jim called me during his prep time on Thursday to let me know that he had to stay after school and officiate at the girls' track meet. It was sunny and warmer than it had been since we got home, so he suggested I bring Sera out. She loved it. She loved watching the activity and being outside.

Since she handled the track meet so well, we decided to test out the local single-A baseball team, the South Bend Silverhawks. We love to go to their games. We planned to go and stay as long as she was happy. She had the best time. She was playing and giggling the whole time. We sat behind the dugout on the third base line. During the national anthem, I held her in front of me while she stood on the dugout. I'm sure the players really appreciated her squeaky shoe accompaniment to the anthem. We weren't concerned about annoying other spectators as there were maybe 20 people around us and no one sitting next to us or behind us.

We ran into our old stadium friends. They always sit across the aisle from us, and we caught up. We also remembered that our friends, Doug & Laura, were planning to attend the game in one of the suites. We saw them on the balcony, but they didn't hear Jim call them, so he tried the phone instead. It worked much better than yelling. They came down and sat with us for a little while with their sons. Sera was much more awake than the last time they saw her, so it was a nice visit.

They made some great improvements to the stadium and its offerings this year. The place looked extra clean and shiny. They've also expanded and improved their menu offerings. For dinner, Jim went up to the concession stand and bought a couple of the new menu items for us to try out. Sera seemed particularly interested in the chili cheese fries. Since she just started eating rice cereal mixed with baby food this week, we thought we'd hold off another week or two on the chili cheese fries.

Sera had a great time and didn't start getting fussy until the 7th inning stretch. We left right after Take Me Out To The Ballgame. She loved that part. The team has one of those giant mascots. She enjoyed watching him from a distance, but wasn't happy at all when he came over and waved to her.

You would think that with a late night, she would have slept in. Wrong-o. She woke up at 4:30 in the morning. We played for awhile in bed after the morning bottle. Jim got a banana and shared it with Sera. She LOVES bananas. She would use her four little teeth and chomp down on that sucker. After an hour and a half or so of play, she fell asleep and Jim and I joined her in the nap.

After we woke up, Sera got her scrambled eggs, rice cereal with applesauce, and refused her bottle. She ate more egg and cereal than usual, so I think she was full. We had promised Doug & Laura's son that we'd go to his lacrosse game, so we packed up the good stroller, the diaper bag, and a cooler of drinks and headed out. It truly is amazing the amount of stuff we're lugging around these days. Oh yeah, the camera, too.

We all had a great time at the game. Laura was there with their daughter. She is three years old and wants to play with Sera so badly. They're going to be great friends. Though his team lost, DJ played really well and scored his first goal. Not bad for a freshman player. Jim got a picture of the play.

DJ running downfield

The game ran really long and delayed Sera's afternoon nap time. She slept in the car on the way home, but it was only a thirty minute drive. I hoped she'd fall right back asleep when we got home as she was so tired. No go. She had refused her bottle again at the game, so I tried another. Wouldn't drink it. I made it hotter. No. Cooler. No. Finally, I remade it with the previous days mixture and added the rice cereal back. I've been transitioning her off the Chinese formula and on to Enfamil. She guzzled that bottle down, but she was just fussy. She didn't want to be held, but she screamed if you put her down. She was overtired, but she'd fight her way back just as she was about to sleep. She had a little too much sun and was just too tired. We gave her a bath in a Johnson & Johnson Bedtime bath and rubbed that lotion all over her. She loves to have lotion rubbed on her skin. Jim then rocked her, sang to her, and put her to bed. She fussed, but finally went out. We crawled into bed and watched the two episodes of Lost I had taped and fell asleep ourselves. We had set Lost to tape on the VCR while we were gone, but it didn't. We missed three episodes, but they repeated the last one before airing Wednesday's episode. Now, we've only missed two. Where did the Others go?

Jim took a lot of pictures yesterday, but has the camera and cable in the basement. I'll look for good pictures to post later. I'm on the second floor doing laundry and posting. Jim has Sera downstairs in the living room. She was napping while he held her in the recliner. I don't want to disturb them as Sera missed Daddy-time during the week. They're making up for it over the weekend. And we learned to respect the schedule. Delayed bed times and naps equals unhappy Sera which means unhappy mom and dad.

By the way, DJ took the above photo at the baseball game. Didn't he do a great job!