Pumpkin Farm

Before I revisit the world series game I attended, I wanted to post some great pictures of Marissa from our recent visit to a pumpkin farm.  My parents aren't on Facebook, so they don't get to see these types of pictures unless I post them here or send them to them in an email. No trouble at all though as I love looking through them again and again!

Our farm of choice, Didier Farms. Not too far and doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

Free use of wagons for lugging around kids and/or pumpkins!

Many different kinds of pumpkins on display.

Primary reason we chose Didier....the bakery. Yum. There were six donuts...we ate those...got six more to go!

Marissa was in heaven picking up and moving pumpkins. 

After moving a bunch around, she settled on this one.

We went by the pony rides on our way to the petting zoo and she exclaimed "This one! Go here!!".  Well, what could I do?  I was hesitant because in August, she wouldn't sit on a horse on a carousel for more than 20 seconds. 

She warmed up to him though. 

And really started enjoying herself. 

We had to ride twice!!

Then came a ride in a truck, which she thoroughly enjoyed. 

All in all it was a great time. Our neighbors and their little boy met us at the farm and we all had fun. The petting zoo was crazy expensive though and Marissa is hesitant to pet dogs, so we took a pass. Maybe next year. 

There may be a next year for the petting zoo and for the Cubs, but not for Goose Island by Wrigley. Due to construction of a huge hotel complex outside Wrigley Field, several businesses closed up shop, including this Goose Island location (there is another). The landlord couldn't guarantee them that they could operate next year during the Cubs games (the most profitable time of the year obviously) so they closed down 9/30.  Such a shame as it was our "go to" place before Cubs games, for out of towners and if we just wanted a good burger. Bah.

Big time catching up!!

Okay, this is getting a bit ridiculous, but I really just am pressed for time to write. It's not that I don't have great thoughts for topics and such, because I do, but it's just a matter of finding time. The last four days have been crazy, so here we go:

Sunday was our third Bears home game of the season and the last for a month. The schedule kind of stinks that way for us with 5 of the last 7 games at home. Brrrrr. For now though, it's beautiful Fall weather.

It's also breast cancer awareness month, so this was the Bears "Pink" home game. LL went online and found all sorts of good pink things including this flag. 

I saw these "booby cupcakes" on line and thought we absolutely had to have them. Our guest for the game, a 33 year old breast cancer survivor, made them and they were awesome!!

She also made some NON-booby cupcakes. Ha!

We briefly interrupt this post to bring you a picture of our little rock star. 

So on Saturday, Domino's Pizza opened their 100th store in Chicago. In celebration, they were selling single topping medium pizzas for $1, with a limit of 5 pizzas per person and only from noon til 1:40 (100 minutes). If a couple showed up, they could get 10!! Now, Domino's isn't my favorite pizza, but if you sell it to me for $1, I'll buy them all day.....for a day or two. We were thinking we'd have one for lunch on Saturday, one for dinner, then one on Sunday evening and I was planning on taking the other two to my Starbucks for the baristas for lunch. The picture above is the line I faced, even though I got there 15 minutes early and when I drove by 30 minutes before it started there was no one in line. 

Still, the line wasn't that long and there was really few people behind us. 

Until a little while later when the line wrapped around the parking lot!! All the way to the left of this picture there were people lined up. They did NOT all get pizzas. Here's the thing, it takes a while to cook a pizza, much less five or ten. So even though I was 20-30 people deep in line or so, it was questionable that I was going to get pizza! After the first 5-10 people left with 5 pizzas per person, the rest started coming out with only two. Yep, they changed the deal because they had a great promotion with shoddy execution at best. So I did end up getting two pizzas eventually, but it was after 1:00 when I got them. That's a lot of disappointed people behind me in line. Talk about backfiring!

Last week on Wednesday, the Royals clinched a spot in the World Series. LL's brother works for the power company in KC and they have a suite at the Royals stadium and are a big sponsor. Right after they clinched the pennant, he called me and invited me to a game, either Tuesday or Wednesday, he wasn't sure when he'd get tickets. It's a 9 hour drive from the city, but a very short flight (75 minutes). But how often can you go to a World Series game? For me, only once, game 1 in 2005 at Comiskey with the Sox/Astros, so I was going to find a way to go. LL's parents were also invited, but they opted to drive (it's only a little over 7 hours from their house). 

So away I went! Saturday Domino's in the cold, rainy line, Sunday Bears game and Monday I'm off to KC.  Monday night was a big gala event for sponsors, politicians, reporters and ex-ball players and such. Here are the pics from Monday night. 

The mascot Slugger and LL's brother.

The entrance.

George Brett in the background. 

The obligatory WS background shot.

Pristine field.

Pick a head, any head.

Love this picture. The scoreboard was constantly changing and showing video, so it wasn't easy to get.

Me in the Giants dugout. My seats were right above here in the first row!

On the field! They had these Royal cutouts for each position. 

Joe making a call to the bullpen......

....and he wants the lefty! Why does he point to his left arm if he is actually talking to the bullpen? Well, that's sort of a flaw in the picture now isn't it?

The outfield fence...literally a chain link fence over a whole mess of lights. 

One of the many cool ice sculptures over the two days. 

This one has baseballs in it and you can drink from it! You pour a drink in the top and the ice chills it.  Nice!

Just a cool lighting effect on the patio. 

Stone crab and shrimp!

More of the same.....

...with some jazz thrown in there for good measure.

Part of my sampling with a not too bad view.

Nice little lighting effect again.

Look at these bad boys by the entrance!! Ice sculptures with fire coming out the top.

Me and Willie Wilson! We had a fun little conversation about a current Royal (Dyson) and a past teammate of his, Rickey Henderson.

My gala pass, dirt from the field (stolen) and a limited edition printed WS coin. Very cool! 

Tomorrow, pictures from the game!

Caught ya by surprise!

Another entry! And I didn't even wait a month! Why??? Lots going on, that's why and I just wanted to document a few things so I have a frame of reference when baby #2 comes around.

Marissa is starting to use a spoon! Sure, she still dumps a ton of it on the floor (particularly when she's trying to share with you) but quite often she gets it right and feeds herself. Very cool to see. We sort of take the whole scoop, balance to mouth and eat thing for granted, much less having the spoon turned the right way!!

She's also climbing on everything now as we got her a two step stool for washing her hands and an adjustable platform for by the kitchen counter so she can get up there and watch us cook. She also is walking a ton of course and has been for a while, but today for instance we walked down to Starbucks instead of me putting her in a stroller. That's a first. LL has walked around the block with her, but this was her first trip with me. Yay me!!

LL has made available to Marissa on her iPad all of these videos about different things like "Potty Time" and such that star a woman who is very energetic and does sign language to all the songs she sings. Now Marissa knows "Stop, and Go Potty" meaning stop what you're doing and go to the bathroom. Of course she still has her diaper on, but it's a start. She's been very good about letting us know when she needs changed by simply telling us instead of crying. I have to say, it's one of my favorite developments.

And now for some softball pics from Orlando:

Here's the team at the entrance to the Wide World of Sports complex.

Prior to the WW of Sports, you enter Disney!

And this is just part of where we walk on our way to the fields.

The one picture of me actually hitting.

Me at third.

And me actually READY at third. Ha!

Finally an update

Well, too much time has passed so I thought I should try to keep up the online journal.

Marissa just turned 18 months on the 11th. What a cutie pie she is. At her checkup she was finally talking to the doctor. At home, she talks up a storm. In front of strangers, not so much. The doc was pretty impressed with her ability to string words together into short sentences. She is in the 93rd percentile for height and 50 percentile for weight.

In other Marissa news, LL bought a two step stool for her to use to get up to wash her hands at the guest bathroom sink upstairs. Immediately Marissa climbed the stairs, pronounced "Ta-da!" and wanted to wash her hands.....which she proceeded to do about a dozen times straight. LL also got a stool of sorts for her to climb up on in the kitchen to watch while we cook.

Finally, as it relates to Marissa, we had a nanny change. Our first nanny, Elvie Delosreyes, left us for full time employment so we were without a nanny for a week. We have a new one though, an Indian woman in her late 50's early 60's named Aisha. Week one was pretty good with her, so we're hopeful!

Last Wednesday I headed down to Orlando with our softball team for the USSSA world series at the Wide World of Sports complex. We also played at the Osceola Complex which are nice fields but not quite as nice. But they are just as hot and have just as much as humidity. We played one game Thursday and won, two games on Friday and won both, two games on Saturday (possibly the first time we've made it to Saturday) and lost both. The first game was against a team from Syracuse, the second against a chirpy team from Las Vegas and the third against a team from Illinois whom we run into fairly often. In fact, about 4 guys on their team were on our team last year, but they weren't team players. It felt good to beat them by a bundle (20-10). For the tournament I was 5-9, but was 3-4 on Saturday and my only out was on a line drive that the first baseman snagged. Being 48, being married with one little gal and another youngster on the way, it could be my last time down there. You never know.

By the way, the Comfort Inn's on Irlo Bronson Hwy are terrible. Don't stay at either one. Also, the Budget car rental place is close to the baggage claim. If you go with someone else, Alamo is good but don't do Dollar....not enough people working.

I'm writing this while watching the Bears play the 49ers in game two of the season. At our first game, we had almost 30 people at the tailgate and it was a beautiful day.....at least until we lost the game in OT to the lowly Bills of Buffalo. We were down 10 points at half, tied it up by the end of the third and blew it going down the stretch. Our special teams and offense have put us in a 17-7 hole tonight at half-time.

As usual, lots of things going on with lots of thoughts, but not enough time to put them down. Maybe things will change with the cooler weather.

Whoaaaaa whoaaaa, we're half way there, whoaa-whoaaa, living on a prayer

A rare follow up post!!

Yesterday LL was halfway to our January 11th due date. Yay!! Ultrasound tomorrow morning.

Now, on to Marissa cuteness. LL took Marissa to a funeral this weekend in Michigan for LL's aunt. I stayed behind due to a softball tournament on Saturday (7 games) and my aunt and uncle from D.C. were in town for a visit. But I digress. LL was at the funeral with Marissa and there were several wonderful eulogies that brought a tear or two to LL's eyes. Marissa gave her a hug and said "Mommy cry." "Pat, pat, pat." as she patted LL while hugging her. I would not have expected that kind of sympathy from a 17 month old, but there it was.

And it seems like Marissa is much taller and even smarter in just the two or three days we were apart. When I came up at lunch today, she saw me from the kitchen and came running to me with just a gloriously celebratory look on her face and shouting "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!".  She gave me a hug, a pat and then said, "Daddy match. Daddy match." Which means she wants me to sit with her and play a match game similar to Concentration if you remember that game. Preferring disorder to order, she normally takes any matches I find and mixes them back up with the other cards. If she doesn't ask me to play Match, she runs to get a ball to throw and kick. Why? Because she knows what I like to do!!

Two more things from Sunday. When LL and Marissa got home from Michigan on Sunday, Marissa did not believe I was not home.  She kept saying "Daddy down? Daddy down?" thinking I was downstairs. When LL finally took her downstairs to prove to her that I wasn't there, she said "Daddy coffee?" A good guess on her part.

Last night she woke up very unhappy about 3 hours after going to bed and we thought she might have a dirty diaper or something. So I went in to settle her down and change her if necessary. As I reached into the crib to calm her, she said "Rock a little." She wanted me to hold her and rock her in our lounge chair. Just adorable. I also asked her if she had a dirty diaper and she said "Change." Just too freaking cute.

Finally, today, our nanny (who is leaving us for a full time gig in the next few days) said that she asked Marissa what her name was and started saying "Marissa" and then Marissa said "Sutton!".

She's adorable and smart!

A "fail" on the swimsuit life preserver.

LL, aunt Linda and a fingernail chewing Marissa. Need to break that habit. Thanks mom!

Reading with uncle Chuck.