March 28

After an intense game that ended with our boys absorbing their first loss of the season (mostly thanks to a pair of umpires who were objectively awful; you know it's bad when even the other team's coach admits that none of the close calls --and some of the obvious calls that should've been easy to make-- went in our favor. Seriously, one dude must've forgotten his seeing eye dog because he missed the most obvious safe call I've ever seen. And the other was just making up rules that don't actually exist in order to penalize our team. Ugh. Clearly I could go on and on about how ridiculous it was), we went to Wendy's.

The initial plan was just to get Frostys (for the guys, anyway; I'd been thinking orange vanilla Diet Coke from the Freestyle machine all along), but given that it was after 1:30 and we'd yet to lunch-it, we decided to sit down and eat instead. 

And we had a lovely time together. I was impressed by how Brady was able to quickly dispense with any frustration over the game's outcome, especially since he pitched the last two innings and the winning run scored on his watch. (Although the runner that scored should've been out at second base; 'twas one of the many muffed calls.) He was able to realize that despite what happened, he pitched well. His curveball was working and he was, for the most part, hitting his spots effectively. And during his single trip to the plate as a batter, he walked. So for his part, all good things.

So tonight, I'm thankful for two specific things: for time with these amazing guys, just sitting in a fast food joint eating burgers and chicken and fries and drinking Diet Coke, and for my baby's growing ability to extract from and focus on the good parts of a not-great situation. The latter is not always easy for adults to do, so I'm grateful that's he's continuing to grow and mature.