Opening Day

Madison and Hannah at the Braves Game last year.

Baseball season starts today, and just like last year, Daddy plans to take Madison out to the ball game some time during the summer. Our favorite team, the Atlanta Braves, are looking pretty good this year - but even if we don't make it to the World Series, baseball is a great sport to go see for us. Mommy and Daddy don't like football or basketball as much, but if you give us tickets to a ball game - or even tickets to a hockey game, we're bound to show up.

That's not a request to give us tickets, by the way.

Last year, we went to see the Braves when the Colorado Rockies came to visit. The Braves were trying out a new starting pitcher, and things didn't work out so well: the Rockies were a good team last year, eventually heading to the playoffs.

As an aside, the last time I saw the Braves vs. the Rockies, we blew them away. Greg Maddux was pitching, and the Braves went on to win the World Series. I know I just dated myself there, but that was an epic game. Talk about the "good old days!"

Back to the present. Or, at least last summer: we sat WAY up in the heavens in order to watch the game below. Ever since Daddy was pegged in the jaw with a foul ball, he's been a little nervous about sitting real close. That was the ninth inning of a game versus the Expos. I count my blessings that Mommy wasn't the one that was hit - she was sitting right next to me. Fast forward to last summer: I couldn't imagine Madison getting beamed, so I insisted that we all sit real far up. Yes, I'm paranoid. I think that comes from being a Daddy who was personally slugged in the jaw by a foul ball he didn't see coming.

The whole family went to see the game: Ye-Ye, Nana, the cousins, Aunt Shain and Uncle Dave. It was a fun time for Madison, who did a lot of exploring, especially in the kids' area they have there. We all had hot dogs and even got there early enough to get free hats. We gave ours to the boys, but you can see Hannah wearing hers in the photo above.

Fast forward to today: We cooked hot dogs out on the grill, in honor of the big day. Not that it is a huge celebration for us - the great weather outside made it the perfect excuse to have hot dogs outside on the deck. Mommy did some shopping and we ate potato salad, baked beans and hot dogs with all the trimmings. Yummy!

Speaking of yummy, you can just imagine what we had for dessert! Madison went through all her eggs this morning, pulling out toys and organizing her candy. She has so much candy, any dentist who happened to walk by would run away screaming in terror. Madison was dressed as a princess for part of the day - you can see her, crown and all, sifting through all the loot on the kitchen floor with Mommy. We felt like Christopher Lee in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," immediately hiding a lot of the candy she got. We weren't that bad - we let her have some candy. Tomorrow, Daddy will bring a lot of it to work with him to leave on the conference table: it will be gone in minutes.

"Lollipops. Ought to be called cavities on a stick."

-Dr. Wilbur Wonka