It's been a long week. And really, it's only been a few days since my last post. It was a long few days. Those days included a big baseball milestone for Smunch. That happened Thursday, but wasn't "celebrated" until early Friday morning when Daddy went to work out in the room we call "the studio" and found a sharp breeze blowing through, even after he'd closed the doors that Mam had left wide open all night. I should have known. I'd looked outside and saw Smunch hitting baseballs in the backyard off a tee. I told him he needed to stop before he broke a window. He was unusually compliant. That's because it was already too late. When I stopped him from hitting baseballs and went back to my own business, he started decimating plants around the yard. He's 8. When is this kind of ridiculous disregard for my plants ever going to subside? I may have to break out the tears next time. Instead, I sent him to his room. He was punished heavily for the destruction in the yard, so I didn't bother giving him more for the window when I found out the next day.
I picked him up from school on Friday. On our walk home (Mam was off with SPENCER!), I started a little conversation with him.
"So, bud...when you were playing baseball in the backyard yesterday..."
"Uh-huh."
"Anything bad happen?"
"Um...I broke a window?"
It comes in very handy having a kid who is incapable of lying. Too bad I didn't get two.
Anyway, one thing I was fairly unwilling to take away from Smunch for any of the week's transgressions was his trip to AT&T Park to see the Giants play their home opening night game. Part of that was because I knew he'd be happy and have great behavior as long as we're headed to see his team or we're there or we were on our way home. Part of that was because I really wanted to go.
The weather was beautiful for the Giants' home opener on Friday afternoon. Not so much on Saturday. I hung out at the field while Mam played softball in the drizzle against another team with only four players. Regardless, it was a tie. It's always a tie. She and I headed straight from that game to Smunch's PONY Pinto 2 Giants game at another park across town. I half-heartedly scored in my paper scorebook while Daddy reveled in scoring the game on his new iPad. Admittedly, it looked cool. He's been scoring on his iPhone, so it was a big improvement. The Giants lost by their slimmest margin yet...14-16. Smunch pitched and did a good job, but his crowning acheivement of the day was making a double play...all by himself. He caught a pop fly (a miracle in and of itself on his team) and then tagged 3rd base. The runner from 3rd was at homeplate and was easily forced out. Smunch won the "bolt award" for the game, which goes to the player with the most outstanding performance. He was proud and I was proud of him too. Sometimes, when he's not destroying things, he can show so much poise.
After a couple of hours at home, it was time to catch the train to the park. This, of course, was not just any ol' home opening night either. It was the night where our pitching hero, Tim Lincecum, was officially awarded his Cy Young trophy for being named the best pitcher in the National League last year. There have been many photos of Timmy and his award already, so goodness knows it wasn't like the first time he'd touched the thing, but it was still fun to be there to see it and see him, looking so charmingly uncomfortable in front of his teammates and the sold-out crowd.
He's 25 and he's reached the pinnacle of his career. What have I done with my life?
I love this photo of Tim walking off the field with his dad, each of them with one Cy Young trophy in his hand. Tim won this award last year too. In between the two awards, he got himself an adorable little French bulldog and named him Cy too. They did a photo shoot of Timmy and his 3 Cys for the latest Giants Magazine. It's so darned cute that I had to have Daddy buy me one. While most girls might gush over the Cy Young award-winner, Mam couldn't stop gushing over the canine Cy.
I also love this picture because he looks so casual walking back to the dugout with his award. This award is a big deal, but I like that he seems to take it all in stride. Always fun to imagine top notch athletes as being regular ol' normal people who just happen to be ridiculously good at something you barely understand. Except Smunch, of course, I'm pretty sure he believes he's the PONY version of Tim Lincecum already!And this was really the highlight of the game. It was otherwise pretty forgettable, with the Giants losing 7-2...a larger margin than Smunch's Giants lost by earlier that day. Mam made us (under threat of crocodile-sized tears) suffer through the whole thing and stay for the post-game fireworks. They were fun, but we didn't get home 'til midnight. Hopefully I won't be paying for that for the entire spring break this week!
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