he’ll remember this his whole life

We let my son skip school last Friday.

That’s a very surprising statement in this house but we had a very good reason. The church of baseball was calling. My brother and my dad have been talking about taking J to his first Cubs game all summer. The timing finally worked out and we decided that Wrigley Field was the best place for J to be on Friday. His father worked it out to join the group as soon as he realized that Friday held the nirvana of Chicago baseball: the Cubs/Sox double header.

It doesn’t happen often but on Friday the Cubs played early in the afternoon making it very easy to get down to the South side for the night game at Cellular Field. We were a little worried about how J would handle 12+ hours of baseball and traveling. Turns out that if you feed him enough peanuts and Pepsi he can do just about anything.

When they got home at 11pm J was still running 100mph. He burst through the door yelling Mom! Mom! because he had so much to tell me. His Papa bought him a Cubs jersey at the beginning of the game and that same player hit the game-winning hit in the bottom of the 10th inning. He showed me his First Game Certificate from Wrigley Field. He told me all about their seats, the train ride between stadiums, the number of peanuts he can fit in his mouth at the same time (13 in case you’re wondering and apparently none of the adults with him thought choking hazard). He told me all about the ivy on the wall, how his uncle held him up high to sing Go Cubs Go at the end of the game, how Albert Pujols on the Cardinals team didn’t even get a hit so he must not be that good after all, how the airplanes from the Chicago Air Show kept buzzing the field. He told me they got to talk to one of the coaches on the field because his Dad knew him, that the Sox game just wasn’t as exciting as the Cubs game but he did really like his cheeseburger there. He told me that he finally decided which team he liked just a little bit more and that he is now officially a Cubs fan. He babbled and bounced and rambled until I finally slowed him down enough to tell him that he really did have to go to bed.

As I tucked him in that night I asked him if this was one of his best days ever. His reply? “Mom, I think I’m going to remember this day for my whole life.”

I hope so.