Grand Slam!

We took Kalin to his first baseball game this past Wednesday. It was a $2 ticket day for the Oakland A's and Kasey is allowed a day off for his birthday AND he had just finished his last Master's class so we decided that this would be the perfect way to celebrate!! I had kept my expectations kind of low because I knew that the only hope for a nap for Kalin would be in the car on the way to the game - and those don't always work out the way I need them to. Plus, I knew that he would have to sit some at the game and I didn't know how crowded it would be and how much room we would have to run around in. The day went far better than I could have imagined. He took a 30-40 minute nap in the car, ate some lunch in the parking lot, and after a screaming match over wanting to walk through the parking lot instead of ride in the stroller or be carried, we made it to the stadium and to our seats - which were in the hot, hot sun. Kalin spent the first inning or two sitting on my lap just looking around, saying "ba-ball", and clapping when others clapped. We finally decided that we weren't going to make it the whole game sitting in the sun so we found some empty seats up in the shade. Most people were doing the same thing. Kalin had a blast sitting in the empty seat next to me, walking around a little, playing with the spring-loaded seats, and taking a 20 minute break with me to go run around in the concession area. He was a wonderful boy and had a really good time!! We all had a really good time!! We even got to see a grand slam!! Our first baseball game outing was a huge success!

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Kalin's verbal skills have really taken off this past month. I'm so proud of him and it is so much fun to hear all the new words he's learned and to have him mimicking and copying our speech. I have a bunch of video of him saying different words but it's going to take some editing to make it watchable and interesting so I'll be posting that sometime later. But for now I'll just leave you with fun things he's been doing and saying recently:

- About 2 1/2 weeks ago we passed by a house that had a cat sitting in it's front yard. Kalin saw it and started saying "Meow" over and over. Now, every time we pass that house he point and says "meow". We have yet to actually see that cat there again but he still remembers seeing it that one time and remembers which house it was at.

- He loves pointing out mailboxes and saying "ma-ma" (long a sound) and also garbage cans "ga-ga". So you can imagine how much fun it is for me walking through residential areas. It's a constant chorus of "ma-ma, ma-ma, ma-ma" with the occasional "ga-ga" thrown in on trash pick-up days. He also loves to point out the airplanes and birds that fly over us.

- He loves tractors (thanks to a book he got from his Aunt Bekah) and loves pointing those out as well. He has a word for them but I'm not real sure how to describe it.

- He has a thing for ice (sounds like "eye") right now and asks for it in every beverage.

- He likes to say "wow" after I've said it.

- He calls his Grampie "bee-bee" (which sometimes ends up sounding like either "baby" or "pee-pee") and calls his Grammie "mammie" (which is also what he calls his Aunt Kami). Just today as he was looking through one of his photo albums he came across a picture of his Grampie and pointed and said "bee-bee". Then the next picture was of his Grammie and he pointed and said "mammie!" I was so proud of him for recognizing them and remembering their names. Kalin has a special love for his Grampie (my dad). He gets very attached to him and sometimes prefers him even to me! Last time my parents were visiting our house we noticed that every time my dad left the room he would start saying "bee-bee". That's how we figured out that this was Kalin's name for Grampie.

- When I talk about Grandma Jody and Grandpa Ken he looks up at their picture that is hanging on our wall. So he recognizes that the names belong to the faces and people. We're working on other family member's names. He says "my" for Uncle Mike and "knee" for Aunt Nise, "ko-ko" for Aunt Koni and "lee" for Analiese. Most of the others are just garbled. Trying to get him to say Evangeline cracks me up because he spits out some garbled word that sounds nothing like it should but he says it with such conviction and confidence that I'm sure he thinks he's saying it correctly - or he just wants to make me stop asking him to say it - "Maybe if I pretend like I know what I'm saying she'll stop". It makes me laugh.

- A little boy ran by us while we were on our walk tonight and Kalin yelled after him, "Go, go go!!"

- Kalin loves using napkins which I just think is fabulous. He wipes his hands, his mouth, his belly and sometimes his tray.

- He loves to take things out to the recycle bin so if we clean out a container or have an empty cardboard box sitting around he'll grab it and head for the front door.

- Kasey and Kalin get up around the same time during the week so they hang out and eat some breakfast while I get to snooze a little longer. Around 7:30 I need to get up so Kasey can get in the shower so he'll send Kalin to the door and tell him to knock. Some mornings it's a gentle little knock, some mornings it's a pounding, and on Friday he attacked the door full force. One day he knocked then stood outside the door saying "Mama" over and over until I opened the door. If that's not just the best way start a day then I don't know what is.

Alright, I think I've exhausted my list of interesting facts about Kalin - or these are just the ones I can remember right now. I'll post some video of Kalin talking and also some from the baseball game soon.