take me out to the ball game...

Dear Em,
Baseball season is back! Well, it's been back for over a week now, but this past Friday was the RedSox home opener at Fenway. We dressed in our RedSox best to celebrate.

We had been waiting all winter for baseball to come back & prepared you for it by teaching you to sing Take Me Out to the Ball Game.

You prefer "peanuts & crackers" to "peanuts & cracker jacks", & of course, we "root root root for the RedSox!"

Yesterday your daddy & I enjoyed a warm & sunny day with friends at Fenway. It felt like we were coming home as we walked down Yawkey Way & saw the sea of people in RedSox shirts. It was so great to sing Sweet Caroline with the whole stadium. The last time I was at a RedSox game, I was seven months pregnant. It wasn't the most comfortable game of my life. Technically, it was your first game.

I didn't realize how much I had missed it until I was back. Your daddy & I day dream about your first real RedSox game. The tickets are not cheap. So, we've decided we want to wait until you're old enough to really enjoy it. We're hoping to make it a whole big weekend, just the three of us. We'll get a hotel room, order room service, & take you to one of the most amazing places on earth...Fenway Park. I really can't wait.

Fenway is one of the oldest baseball stadiums in the country & has always seemed like such a magical place to me. It brings absolute strangers together. So many people come together in this park with great hopes. These people root together, cry together, & sing together. It's an amazing thing to see so many people living & dying (figuratively, of course) by the placement of a pitch & the sound of a bat smacking a ball. Baseball is America's pastime, & you can feel the history at Fenway. I feel so linked to the generations of the past, present, & future.

For this year, we're going to start by taking you to your first PawSox game. It's a beautiful stadium that includes a grassy area to sit on. That's where we hope you'll enjoy the your first baseball game this summer. I mean, you sit on the couch & watch the RedSox with Daddy, yelling at the TV screen the whole time. I think you're really going to like seeing a game in person.

I feel like we've already passed something down to you: being a RedSox fan. It's something that our parents passed down to your daddy & I, with all the good & bad that comes with it. We couldn't be prouder & more excited about our little RedSox fan & the all experiences being a fan will bring you in the future.

I love you so,

Mommy