Take Me Out...

Dude went to a Rockies game when he was 6 months old, but he slept in his car seat in a box, where it was quiet and air conditioned. Doesn't count. SO....we ventured out to Coors Field with the Sheas on Friday night to allow Duder the chance to experience real baseball. Up close and personal. We left the little girls home with sitters, which was a good move. Traffic getting there was a real downer and left Dude wondering why on earth we were doing this, but once we were downtown in the midst of action, he was engrossed.

Our seats were directly in front of the megascreen, which provided for a majority of the entertainment for the night. Then Dinger, the mascot, came into sight. Questions came out like missiles at that point, so the dads took the kids to meet him. Once it came their turn, Dinger had to leave on important business, so they each got a head tap, which proved enough for them. We talked about Dinger the remainder of the night with 5 minute intervals between the questions.  Watching Riley and Dude sit in their own private seats together and bond over whatever they found to be interesting was the most endearing part of the night for me. 

Dude and Riley then settled into their seats with blue cotton candy. This kept them busy for about 30 minutes until the beer man came down the aisle. You see, Dude thought that all these vendors were offering him free treats, which was beyond his wildest dreams. He said, "YES PLEASE!" to everyone who passed him. Finally, when he realized he was being ignored, he tapped the beer man on the back and politely told him that "I can't have dat beer, but can you please go tell the lemonade man to come back? I would like some lemonade." The beer man (and everyone around him) found this to be quite hilarious and he replied with "Little brother! You know where to go for connections! I'm gonna hook a little brother up and go get that lemonade man for you!" And that he did. Eventually.  The camera man was around for this interaction and proceeded to put Duder and Riley on TV.  Our little super star.

I"m not sure that Dude realized we were there to watch baseball or understood that the Rockies won (for once), but he enjoyed his own aspects of the night.  Our outing ended at 10:30pm and the kids all rallied like troopers.  Dude talked about Dinger for the first 15 minutes of the car ride home until we put a moratorium on all Dinger talk.  Within 30 seconds he was sound asleep in the back seat.  We had so much fun and once again, loved watching our Dude lovin' life.  This is the summer of Dude we decided.  More summer of Dude to come.