Spring training 2012

Taking it all in.

 We went to our first spring training game of the year a few weeks ago. When we went to games last year, Elle was young and immobile, so the biggest challenge of the outing had been getting her to nap in a busy, unfamiliar place and finding a quiet, cool place to nurse her. This year, Baby Girl was all about eating a hot dog, walking around, checking out all of the people, sights and sounds. There would be no napping, and we knew that, but luckily we timed things right so that she slept on the way and the way back.

We drove down to Port Charlotte, home of the Tampa Bay Rays and about an hour south of us. The Pirates spring train in our city, but we both had the day off, the schedules were favorable and we hadn't been to Port Charlotte in two years. The Rays were playing my beloved Pittsburgh Pirates, and a friend of mine from my previous job was covering the game, so it was good to see my team and my former coworker.

Stuffing her face, pre-game.

Elle was a trooper, sitting through 3.5 innings with little fuss. She was content to eat and play on our laps, and it didn't hurt that the game was going quickly. The weather was nice, but hot, hot, hot. The sun beat down, so even though there wasn't much humidity, it was still quite toasty.

Early on ...

She and I walked around for a few innings, enjoying a lovely patch of overcastness and a slight breeze. After a brief return to our seats, we met up with my friend, and then Tim took Elle for an inning before the game was over, ending in exciting fashion (and an unfortunate loss for the Pirates).

Officially over the game.

The whole time we were there, it continued to strike me how different things, like spring training, are now that we have Elle. We obviously couldn't focus on the game as much as we used to or enjoy our hot dogs and peanuts slowly like we might have long ago. We used to go to several games and will probably only go to two or three this year. But we wouldn't trade it for the the world. We had the opportunity to watch our daughter delight in the music and cheers coming over the public address system. We watched her clap in response to the claps of other baseball fans. We saw her people watch and ham it up for people who didn't care that she had a tendency to walk directly in their path without a second thought.

After a long day at the ballpark ...

And I kept remembering the last time we were at that park for a spring training game - me feeling huge at 22 weeks pregnant and watching baseball after a particularly disheartening OB appointment.