"go brewers!"

last night madelyn took in her first 'tailgate' and brewers game of the season (unfortunately they lost). madelyn had a wonderful time and didn't go to bed until 9:45pm! (her normal bedtime is 8:00.) as an extra bonus, she slept until 7:30am this morning! i felt so pampered to still be in bed that late.


so we went to pick up our location balloons (balloons you tie to the car so the rest of your group can find you - in our case 80 people) on thursday night and madelyn could not have been more excited to bring home some balloons. all day yesterday when ever i would mention the baseball game she would shout "balloons!" and run up to see them where we had tied them to a dining room chair. the picture is from our trip to the game where she got to hold the two stars and "smile face" balloons.



tailgating with matt's co-workers madelyn got to learn several new words, but her favorite was "grill" or "grilling". i think that it helped that daddy was the grill master of the tailgate. she also got spoiled with more junk and sugar foods than she has ever had before. she really liked this huge rice crispy treat (with blue food coloring for the brewers). i don't think she has had so much sugar in a single sitting before. she was also really excited to run over and give daddy a bite at the grills. the first time she went to share was my idea, but she decided that she needed to go back later and give him another bite. she must have gotten her fill of sweets because she turned down a juice box in favor of water when we got into the stadium for the game.



i wish that i had been able to get video of her cheering on the brewers and clapping along with all the stadium chants/cheers but it was a difficult angle and so, so loud where we were sitting. she loved all the organ songs and would get out of her seat to dance. she did so much better than last season! i am sure that being older helped, but she also had her own seat this time and the game went by much faster (three-up, three-down pace).


she particularly liked the pitching. she would see the guy wind up and say "the pitch!" as he would throw it. i think she was able to follow the hits, but can't be totally sure. she did look in the right place the whole path of the ball and said that she could see it, but who knows.


after the sausage race (another high point for madelyn) we sat through one more inning before calling it a night. she was still doing great, but we knew that we were on borrowed time and

needed to get her (and me) home and in bed. plus the profanity in the college groups sitting around us was increasing as their beer counts did. (matt and maddie's creepy glasses were supplied by one of matt's co-workers and everyone wore them for pictures - even maddie.)


she called out "go brewers" several times on the way to the car and was marching to her own chant of "march, march, march" that was entertaining those walking around us. she did stop and look back towards the stadium when the crowd would let out a big cheer. i think she did so well because she was just feeding on the energy of everyone around her and expected her to crash in the car, but she stayed awake the whole ride home.


once we were home and ready for bed, she almost passed on a book but realized what she had said no to and quickly changed her mind. however, she only let me read it once before rolling over and saying good night. love.



p.s. the first of her 2-year molars has made its official appearance - at least it was the first time i got to see it.

take me out to the ball game

sunday afternoon maddie took in her first professional baseball game. and to make it extra special it was ryan braun bobble-head day! nothing like a free souvenir of a "first" event (well besides all the pictures i take).

madelyn almost made it through the first two innings. she really liked standing on my lap and looking at all the people behind us. she even clapped after everyone finished cheering (just a little delay in her reaction to what is going on there). my lap may never be the same again. she was up and down, up and down, around and round, and almost never stopped moving the whole time. thankfully, we noticed that the toddler play ground area was right behind our section on our way in! so madelyn and i made our way over there when she was starting to get angry about being contained - yet again.

the toddler area was like a beehive!! i have never seen so many small children hyped up and contained in a little pen. they were all over each other and running every which way. i was afraid to move for fear of tripping on someone or stepping on them. maddie was not intimidated at all though. she got right in there. the funniest part was that all of these 4 year olds (my best guess) were climbing all over her on this giant baseball glove she was sitting on and one little boy was trying to protect her. once things settled down he even got out and squatted behind it to jump up and play "peek-a-boo" with her. i was very thankful for the play area but decided to venture back to our seats hoping that some of her energy had worn off.

not so much... at least this time she was open to others holding her. she really enjoyed playing with the empty beer cup! i know, it looked a little funny to see her holding an empty beer cup, but i was getting desperate for a little bit of a break. after she finished up with the cup we went back to the play area for some more activity as a distraction from missing her afternoon nap time. unfortunately we missed the sausage race! i was so disappointed. i thought that maddie might like that part. oh well. maybe we will get back to the ballpark again later. love.