Monday, April 21, 2008

Minnesota Twins Love Baby Monster

Baby Monster attended its first Twins game on Saturday, April 19. Everyone rooted for home team and the Twins beat division rivals, Cleveland Indians, by a score of 3-0.

Although Justin Morneau homered, Nick Blackburn got his first win as a Twin and Joe Nathan got the save and held the shut-out, the biggest highlight for Baby Monster, who had an obstructed view seat, was the nachos and Malt Cup.

Big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Tepley who made the day possible by buying the tickets.

Link to box score: http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/news/wrap.jsp?ymd=20080419&content_id=2553902&vkey=wrapup2005&fext=.jsp&team=home&c_id=min

Friday, April 11, 2008

Here we go!


I get to see my favorite (and only) nephew, James every once-in-awhile. I’m sure we’d like to see each other more often. I know I’d like to hang out with him more. Since it would be pretty sad if a diaper wearing two-year-old thought I was lame, I’m going to assume he digs me too.

As it turns out, James is a huge fan of trains. Good kid. The last time he visited The Cities, his mom, my older sister Tonya, decided it would be fun to take him for a ride on our light rail train. I was lucky enough to join.

I ride this train downtown to work every day. It’s a great way to get downtown, mostly because it’s quick and easy. I pop on my iPod and just grab onto something as I mindlessly get whisked to work with the same similar faces day after day.

This trip was much different. As I'm just getting to know, to a two-year-old almost every experience is new and amazing. It’s great to be a part of when I get the chance. I’m a 30-year-old cynic, which means it’s been a long time since I’ve been so excited that I screamed uncontrollably. James hit that level of excitement a few times on this trip.

He thought the train was about one of the coolest things he’s ever seen, much less taken a ride on. He took in so many new experiences, his wide eyes almost never blinked. His joy brought joy to everyone on the train. “Here we go!,” he shouted every time the train started from a stop and there we went to grins and laughter.

It was an enriching experience and a great day.

Recently, my wife and I had a routine Baby Monster check-up with the Obi-Wan-Gynobie. (Help us Obi-Wan, you are our only help. Please tell us how to soothe Baby Monster.)

Baby Monster is happy and healthy. Katy, though still nauseous, is healthy as well. The only thing that didn’t go as planned was that we were supposed to get to hear Baby Monster’s heart again and it didn’t happen. Our OBGYN grew impatient and said, “we’re going to try to do this another way.”

So, she had me dim the lights as she pulled out an exotic looking tool and some lube that looked like KY Jelly. I could tell it was going to get interesting and we eventually experienced things we had never experienced before. We got to see Baby Monster for the first time by ultra-sound. Inexplicably cool.

There it was; a real little baby in Katy’s belly. Our little baby.

At the time we voyeurd into Baby Monster’s world, it was kicking and bouncing from one end of the womb to the other. Well, there's the answer to Katy's nausea. The structure seems to be holding up fine; good work Doozer.

Baby appeared to be in an excited state of discovery and it looked like it was yelling “Whoopee! Whoopee! Yippee! Woohoo!” as it zipped around in the only world it knows.

It looked a lot like a two-year-old on a train for the first time, or a 30-year-old, soon to be first-time dad, seeing a growing little baby in his wife’s belly for the first time. I guess it’s just a matter of perspective.

At one point in time, it appeared that Baby Monster turned and looked right at us. Then, it lifted one of its arms over its head and moved it back-in-forth as if to waive us "hello" for the first time.

Hello Baby Monster, here is to many more exciting firsts for all of us.