America's pastime

My mom has said that the reason she understands football so well is because football time=time with her dad. Mabes is showing a similar interest in baseball. Every morning, she asks Dave how their "A Team"--Atlanta Braves--did the night before, and if ESPN is showing highlights of the game. Her absolute favorite is when the Braves play on a Sunday afternoon, so she and Dave can cuddle up in the recliner and watch the game. At one point, Mabes got excited and said, "Hey, dere's Brian McCann!" Dave was surprised and asked how she knew who it was. "I just knew. Dat's what he looks like. He has a beard." I, on the other hand, wouldn't know Brian McCann from Adam. I had to google his name to find out if it was McKann or McCann.

We took her to a local minor league game here (note the packed stadium, the game was well underway), and while she was disappointed that it wasn't the A Team, she still enjoyed it.

She recently decided she was going to make an A Team craft for Daddy. She was describing in great detail what she wanted to make, and Dave told me I should help her with her idea. I decided the more fun option (and perhaps lazy way out) would be to hand her the construction paper, glue, scissors, and crayons and tell her to have at it. I helped when asked, particularly with cutting out the head and hat, but the rest was all Mabes:

It's Chipper Jones. Note the tomahawk and A on the front of his jersey. On the back is the number 10, Chipper's number. I didn't know that, either. He's holding a bat and has just hit the ball that's flying across his chest. When I helped her get the paper for the hat, I started cutting and she got mad--"Dat's the wrong colors, Mommy!" She showed me the correct colors, and then she drew the fancy A on the hat. She was very excited to present it to Dave, and Chipper now resides in his office. Mabes sneaks in to update Chipper on the scores, and in case real Chipper doesn't play well and the Braves lose, Mabes reminds Dave that he has paper Chipper to comfort him.

Dave just reminded me of the other baseball-related story: One evening when they were watching baseball, Mabes told Dave, "I don't fink any of dese baseball players are daddies." Dave asked her why she thought that, and she answered, "Well, because daddies have to work, and dey can't just play lots of baseball all day." Dave explained that for baseball players, playing baseball is work. They get paid (a lot!) to play baseball all day. Mabes' eyes widened and her jaw dropped--"Playing baseball IS dere work? Dat's CRAZY!" She didn't say it, but I'm sure she was wondering why anyone would choose work other than playing baseball.