Baseball Magic

Birthdays are funny to me.  I always feel like we celebrate the wrong people. So what if it's your birthday? What did you do? When you were born, you basically showed up and did what you were told to do. If not, they came in after you and pulled you out anyway. For that you get cake every year? No. Birthdays should be for the moms. This year, Mom was here for my birthday, and I could not have thought of a more fun way to hang out for the day. We did joke about calling it "Happy Squeeze Day", or "Sorry about that whole pushing out ordeal" day, or other things that really should not be typed for the general public to read, but in the end, I was very happy to be able to give Mom a hug and say thanks. That made my day.

Kyle surprised me with a tour of Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals! Sooo fun. Surprise #2 was that our friends Judith and Kim met us at the stadium because it was Kim's birthday weekend too. Happy faces on a happy day...a cold day, but still happy!

For those of us who grew up in California, it is still weird to me to see snow on a baseball field. Also, we noticed when we toured the stadium from the box seats, there were footsteps in the snow out to the pitcher's mound, but no footsteps walking back. Where did they go?  I'm assuming it was baseball magic and leaving it at that.

We also got to tour the dugouts and sit where the players sit. Very cool. You get a great perspective of what the players can see during a game.
Ahem...yes, I know I only have one glove on. I had to take off a glove to take pictures with the camera and it was too much of a pain to keep putting it back on, so I had one cold hand the whole time.

 

 Here's the whole gang: Mom, Kyle, me, Kim and Judith.

After the tour, the five of us went to for brunch to Rooster's. Crepes, mimosas and Bloody Marys for all! Afterward, we went home for a much needed Official Birthday Nap time.

For dinner, I really didn't want to have to get dressed up and go out just to eat dinner with two of my favorite people. Instead, we stayed in! Kyle and Mom made a lovely dinner of steak, salmon, asparagus and potatoes - and really, a fabulous dinner you can eat at home in comfy clothes with your family beats getting dressed up and eating with strangers. I'll put Kyle's steak up to a restaurant steak any day.  It was a tasty way to close out a fun day.

While Mom was here, she made a few jackets for Toby (who in their head just thought "of course she did")! And when I say "made", I mean sewn from a pattern that was 3 times too big, so she had to cut it down, sew a little, measure him again, sew a little and on and on. If we were lucky, he would sit still for his fitting (not). Mostly, it was me holding him still, while Mom tried to pin fabric on him to see if it fit, and then trying to pull it off again without poking him with the pins.

Here are two coats from "Mama Leona's" winter fashion line.

Here you see Toby wearing the Red Quilted coat, more for a formal outing to the park, such as meeting the Queen.  This coat leaves plenty of room to run, with a velcro chest strap and another velcro tummy wrap to keep his stomach warm. The coat was measured perfectly so when he sits down, it covers him all the way to the ground, but leaves enough room and space to run and play.

Mental note: Tummy wraps are a great idea for keeping his tummy warm, and also a good way to keep his tummy clean. The underside of the coat was covered in mud spots when we got home.

Mental note #2: On next coat, make tummy wrap smaller. Toby does not lift a leg and pee, but just seems to stop running long enough to go potty and then he's back to running again. He wound up peeing all up the front of the jacket. Very inappropriate if you are planning on meeting the Queen.

Here Toby is wearing the more informal, every-day use Fleece Puppy Paw coat. Not so ideal for meeting the Queen, but definitely useful when meeting a few friends at the park for a game of football. Same fantastic velcro chest strap, with a new and improved thinner tummy velcro strap, with special added detail of a collar on the back of his neck. You can see the collar folded down in the picture above. This jacket is also known as the "Sherlock Holmes" coat, which is exactly what Toby looked like when he popped his collar to walk around the park. That's how he rolls.

Yes, he is so nice and comfy warm that I swear he is smiling in this picture.

Not to be outdone at the park, here is Mama Leona herself, wrapped up like a Russian grandmother. Well, it was really cold outside, and we weren't done walking yet. Mom was definitely a trooper while she was here! She never said no to a trip to the park with Toby or out for a walk. She just put on her boots, coat and scarf and out we went on our next adventure.

And in case you didn't get enough of him already, here is Toby, looking extremely cute on our lazy football Sunday. Sometimes I think he owns the place.

Thanks for reading! Until our next adventure, keep on smiling, snuggling, and smelling the world around you.


Big hugs,
Mandi, Kyle and Toby