Sophie has surely caught the bug. Nope, she’s not sick with the latest pestilence floating around area Pre-schools. I think I’ve created a monster of sorts. She’s got Sox fever. We went to our fist Sox game as a family on Saturday night. Sophie has been looking forward to this for a long time and I have to say that with her fear of crowds, strangers, and any noise louder than a whisper, we didn’t know what to expect.
A Sox game is a very loud affair. I am not sure if it is because of the overall subdued nature of the fans or the fact that they are so fixated on the game that they don’t make a big spectacle with over-zealous cheering but the folks at the ballpark feel the need to pipe in loud music and cheering prompts to “get the crowd going”. And there are fireworks, lots of them. Fireworks to start the game, fireworks when any of the Sox players hit a home run, and on this particular night, fireworks after the game. We were positioned right under one of the speakers, in the upper deck, which added to my concern.
The game starts with a blast of AC/DC. This produced a concerned look on Sophie’s face. Luckily we remembered her ear plugs, put them on her, and she quickly settled into the game. Actually, that’s kind of an understatement. She pretty much treated the Cell like her own living room. Jumping on the seats, cheering and jeering, dancing in the aisles, and eventually trying to nap in one of the chairs.
The stadium also has a “kids area”. A 3-story baseball playground where you can run the bases, throw pitches to a stuffed doll A. J., practice your swinging with a batting machine, etc. I have a feeling we’ll be signing her up for T-ball next year because, in an uncharacteristic manner, she wanted to do all of this. Unfortunately for Sophie, we drew the line at the batting cage. When asked what she wanted to do next, she complained that we were missing the game and asked if we could go back to our seats.
For her birthday, Sophie’s grandmother got her a Sox credit card to spend at the game. We figured she would buy herself a new shirt or jersey, or even ball. Instead, the first things that caught her eye was a stuffed Southpaw, the Sox mascot. I need to mention that Sophie first saw Southpaw at the Dragon Boat races a few months ago and wanted nothing to do with him. She says it was because he was hanging out with the dragon dancers and the dragon was scary but I don’t believe she was so keen on the giant green furry monster either. Since then, she has been fixated on this guy.
We let Sophie take over the camera for a while so that you can get some idea of what things were like for her at the game. Of course, we get a shot of Sophie’s favorite player, A. J. Pierzynski, the back of the guy that sat in front of her, the beer guy, me and Southpaw, and some interesting views of the field.
The Sox didn't win but it was a really exciting game. Sophie’s already talking about the next time we go to a game. I don’t know how to explain the whole “season” thing to her and that we're pretty much near the end of it. The Sox’ hope for extending their play into October seems slim but hopefully they’ll deliver one more win so that Sophie can get her fix.
Sophie loves art and she REALLY loves painting. Yesterday we decided to re-paint the art windows on the back fence. Sophie decided on the decoration and did most of the painting and all of the color choices. She did a great job, particularly with her purple dog.
She had a tough time understanding the back-painting technique so we had to paint the dog several times. All in all, she eventually got it and they came out great. Can't wait to do some Halloween themed ones with her.
Another thing that we're seeing lately (as evidenced by the angst-ridden look in one of the photos), is that Sophie seems to be developing a dislike for the objectification of children through photography. She is NOT liking having her picture taking and almost stormed off in protest after this series. Lets hope she doesn't keep this up or the blog will start to get even more boring than it already is.
