Making Memories!

 Happy Sunday

Bradley saw his first baseball game ever. There were a lot of reasons he never went to one, from his health to the cost and everything in between, it just wasn’t in the cards to go. But we have a huge Cardinal fan in our house and it’s been a big year with two fan favorites retiring this year, Pujols and Molina. With that in mind, I bought tickets for us to see the Cardinals play the Padres in San Diego - I love that stadium and that’s my hometown, so that’s where I felt it would be safest to take Bradley. Taking him to LA on a Friday or Saturday night felt way too overwhelming for all of us - and a Sunday day game would have been too hot for him. So I chose San Diego on a Wednesday evening. Tickets in hand, the panic set in a little bit. 😂

Getting the tickets was the easy part, the planning was the hard part. With all the restrictions for the stadium and COVID - I was extremely worried about actually getting into the stadium. There were so many rules, and the size of the bag was so much smaller than his button replacement kit - I almost started to hyperventilate just realizing that alone. I read every single excerpt on the Padres website, and then Petco Park’s. Still knew I had no true answers. So I called, left a voicemail and hoped someone would call me back. They didn’t. But while I waited, I ordered two potential diaper bags that we could use…one was still too big for the small seating area - let alone what we thought they’d allow in; the other, was way too small and not worth the effort. So I tried a third one that was somewhere in between and usable. The Thursday before our game the next Wednesday, I actually got a person on the phone. After explaining to him my situation, he sent me to another person - who told me the diaper bag would be fine, “enjoy the game.”  Easy for him to say. 

We booked a hotel in Old Town because we didn’t want to pay a mortgage payment for a hotel. 😳. We almost prepaid for parking - but that was as confusing as possible and the range of pricing for spots in the same lot were ridiculous. So we decided to wing that part and just get there early. 

We got to our hotel and walked down to Miguel’s Cucina, a wonderful surprise as we didn’t know there was one in Old Town, and this was one of the restaurants we used to go to when we were dating. From there, we headed to downtown and all her traffic and weird One Way streets. The lot that boasts the handicap parking was full of other prepaid parking three hours before the game…hmm…ooookkkaaayyy…. So as we tried to figure out plan B, we turned a left and saw the Omni hotel and their event Valet parking which was cheaper than all the parking that we had seen online. So we valet parked and were incredibly early - and on the wrong side of the stadium completely. 

So with Bradley by the hand, we had to walk all the way around the stadium to the gate that would open first. My kiddo walked almost a mile. We didn’t bring his push chair because we had no idea where we could leave it in terms of how close our seats were. So he would take ten steps, then try to climb up one of us…then we’d get him to walk another few steps and he’d try again. After taking a break to sit on a curb, Dad got some more information for us, and then we got up and walked a little further til we found the gate that would be the first to open up. There was a lot of standing and one period of holding, and when I couldn’t do that anymore, I had him sit on the top of my shoes. He liked that. 

A sweet worker talked with us and gave Bradley three baseball cards, told us where we could find a huge sign that says “My First Baseball Game” and though we knew that was too far for him to walk, we absolutely appreciated the effort all the same. When we finally walked in, Security didn’t open our bags for him, neither the diaper bag nor the food bag…all that worry (and a couple sleepless hours each night after I would put Bradley back to bed) - and they all welcomed my little boy with smiles and fist bumps and told him to enjoy the game - Pujols Jersey and all. 

It was a hike and a puzzle, but we finally found our seats. Great seats; fifth row, at the bottom of about fifty rows. After helping him make his way down, we still made it in time for some batting practice for the Cardinals. Molina was tossing balls to the kids from short stop, but he really couldn’t see Bradley. One of the rookies, Brendan Donovan, was taking ground balls at third base. He glanced over, and I raised my hand for a ball, all while I had Bradley’s hand in my right. He looked at Bradley and tossed us a ball….only, he didn’t want it to come too hard I think, so it hit the netting. But he ran over and tossed it over to us. All my life I have never left a game with a ball from the field…and there was my sweet boy gripping tightly to his first ever at his first game ever. Bradley sat in his seat and held that ball for almost 25 minutes before he tossed it at some guys back. Luckily, he was a kind man and took no offense, helping get Bradley’s ball to Eric who was able to get it safely into his pocket. ❤️⚾️

Bradley and I would travel those fifty rows to the bathroom twice. Slow going but he did it, and the fans were kind - smiling at him, encouraging him, telling him he was doing a great job. One mom leaned in and told me she had a baby boy at home like Bradley. And one man walked around us with ice cream bars, stopped and looked at us, then started to go again, but stopped a second time and said “I wanted to offer to help.” And I could tell he was worried I was offended. But I just smiled and told him that that was incredibly sweet of him and we totally appreciated it, but we were good and though slowly, we would get there. 🥰.  But what a great stadium to watch your first game; surrounded by the nicest, kindest people, for such a special little boy. 

When it was over, we were trying to get to an exit and happened upon a gate that had a sign for Omni Hotel. At first they said you had to show your hotel room key. But Eric asked about a valet ticket, and the they said - yeah, go ahead. So from a mile to a small bridge and a set of stairs to the valet desk. Sounds great right? Except for the very first time ever, when I moved to put Bradley on the escalator - he actually balked, stopped, and yanked backwards out of my hands. So Eric is halfway down the escalator and I am jumping back up and off that thing trying to grab Bradley to keep from knocking him down because he is standing, unmoving at the top of the escalator in everybody’s way! Almost killed myself getting him out of the way and up in my arms to blindly say a prayer as I took the step and hoped that there would be a step under my foot when it landed. Eric was able to get back close enough to tell me I was good. We managed to survive the escalator and get off of it to walk two steps around the corner and be second in line to give our ticket to get our truck. That part was the easiest of all things, within ten minutes we were climbing in the truck to head to the hotel. 

Yes it sucked that the Cardinals lost, but going to a game for your hometown team means you kind of don’t lose. 😉  Taking your son to his first game where a kind young man throws a ball to him… absolutely makes all the stress and worry completely disappear leaving only gratitude and joy. It was an amazing night for Bradley and for Eric and I. So much so that I had Eric take the girls to Dodger stadium on that following Sunday to see history, but also celebrate time with their dad on National Daughter’s Day. I did not know that was what day it was…but it was a special day for them before I knew and definitely after we knew. 🥰

31For21 Blog Challenge for Down Syndrome Awareness and Acceptance.  Maybe it takes more to help him create a memory, more planning, more work…but every memory we make is so worth it in the end!