From the sidelines
With my wife and son out of town, I had a little date all weekend.
I was able to spend Friday night through Sunday afternoon with 14-month-old Addie. It was the first time it had been just us for a whole weekend — and it was a lot of fun.
We played with toys, ate every meal together, and even threw the ball around. We walked around town, went to the store, and played at the park.
But the most fun we, or at least I, had, was at the ballpark Sunday afternoon.
Addie and I went to watch her cousin Calvin Jeffrey and two other Marion boys play in a Babe Ruth district tournament at the Marion Baseball/Softball complex.
Once there we sat in the shade on a blanket while I watched baseball and Addie ate animal crackers.
She didn't pay much attention to the game, but she did clap when she heard a lot of noise, even if it was for the other team.
We walked around the park, got a pretzel and some apple juice, and Addie jabbered the whole time. She was really excited when she saw someone walking a dog. "Dah," she said, pointing to the four-legged creature.
We went back to our place in the shade by her Great-Grandpa Bernhardt, and she sat drinking her juice and laughing and waving at anyone who looked at her.
Finally, she was done sitting.
She walked over to the fence behind the dugout. She reached for a Gatorade, and even tried to walk into the dugout, unafraid of the boys with the large metal bats in their hands.
The only time she got mad at me all day was when I wouldn't let her go inside the dugout — of course she would have been a whole lot angrier had she taken a ball or bat to the forehead while in there.
It was getting hot at this point, and Calvin's team, Hillsboro Post 366, was up 11-3 in the final inning. We went to sit back down in the shade, and not soon after the game ended with a Hillsboro victory.
Her grandpa and I told her it was time to go, and she started looking around as if something was missing.
Immediately I knew what it was. She brought a plastic ball to play with, and her cousin Colton and some friends used it to start up a little baseball game of their own.
She didn't care because she was interested in other things, but it had been more than an hour, and she still remembered it now that it was time to leave.
I showed her where the ball was and she pointed at the boys and kept saying, "ball."
I didn't want to interrupt their game, and I know Colton will bring the ball back to her when he can. So my little date and I climbed in the car and drove home. Not long after arriving, Jamie and Mitch came back, and our date was over.
I was glad to spend some quality time with Addie, and I hope she felt the same way about me.
Although, more than likely, she was just wondering where the heck her ball is.
