Free tickets to a professional baseball game?  Why, but of course we will take some.  What could be better than a fun afternoon at the ball park with Josiah?  A full body wax perhaps? A root canal with no anesthesia maybe? Seriously, what was I thinking?

In his defense, Josiah did great for the first 4 and a half innings.  There was some serious fruit snack bribing in the beginning to get Josiah on the elevator so we could get to our seats. Then, just before the doors closed, an attempt to push through the crowd to escape.  I hollered out, “Rick!” to alert my husband I needed assistance, as I grabbed for Josiah. The man next to me assuming I was talking to Josiah said, “It’s okay Rick” in a comforting voice as if to assure him the ride wouldn’t be that bad. The doors closed before Rick, I mean Josiah could dart out.

We found our seats and settled in to enjoy the game. Josiah was quite content to be there. Almost looks as if he is concentrating on the activity on the field doesn’t it? Without those purple beads, I doubt he would have lasted 10 minutes.  We keep a pair with us at all times. We learned long ago, beads mean Josiah stays put.

This was the 1st inning.  By the beginning of the 3rd inning, we started feeding him.  He had ice cream and some funnel cake, then more funnel cake.  We’ve also learned food means Josiah stays put.

Then, around the middle of the 4th inning, Josiah started getting noisy.  He stood up a few times, made some loud vocalizations and began swinging his beads wildly.  I asked Rick to take Josiah’s beads away for a little while.  It usually helps to calm him.  Not today.

I think Josiah got mad that we took his beads away.  I imagine he was thinking this…’Oh, take my beads away huh?  I’ll show you.’ as he lurched forward and grabbed a fistful of funnel cake right off my plate. Powdered sugar went flying.  Pieces of flaky, sweet, melt-in-your mouth goodness flung to the ground. Hands repeatedly grabbed at the plate in an angered attempt to remove it from my lap. So much powdered sugar, it looked like a light dusting of snow flurries all around my seat and in my lap and on the seat of the kid in front of us.  Needless to say, we were drawing some attention by this point and Josiah was not going to rest until he beat that funnel cake to the ground.  It was time to go.

Rick shuffled him away as I cleaned up the mess, apologizing profusely to those around me. Half a pack of baby wipes later, I caught up with Rick and Josiah.  Apparently, now he was quite content to sit.  Never mind the people walking by.  Josiah had his beads once again.  He wasn’t going any where.

 This is what I imagine he and Rick were thinking.

Hey look Dad, put your hand through here.

 I’m not ready to go just yet.

Maybe he just needs some time.

 Come on buddy, we have to go now.

I’ll just explain it to him and give him time to process.

Got any suggestions?

Daddy Express Train? It’s always worked before.

What?  Climb up on your back instead of walking?  Heck yeah!

I’m guessing this will be our last game…for a good long while!