As you can see, I'm getting cooler all the time. Here I am in big boy pajamas taking a nap on the couch before bed time.
Dinner time! Eating squash makes me toot.
This activity table is a lot of fun even though I need a spotter.
This one is almost a month old but is an interesting view of me engaged in one of my favorite (and gross) activities.
This photo had to be cropped because Mom's underwear was on the floor. Ha Ha!
When I was sick, Grandma Cheri came to help take care of me. Then Papa Danny came to play with me too.
Nothing like a cold cup of water to wash the food down.
Even though I'm only six months, I'm wearing 12 month PJ's. I know, you're impressed.
2 comments:
Yay! More pictures of Grady! You made my day. You're getting too big--I need to meet you soon. I'll be back in the Midwest soon, San Jose's kind of a nasty town. So maybe I'll get to meet you some time this summer?
Keep posting pictures...and Go LADY BEARS against Purdue!
Dear Grady,
Hang in there. You talk about how all your toddler friends make fun of you because you are a Royals fan. Listen: Throughout history, there have been men and women like Galileo, Joan of Arc and Thomas More who were condemned and even executed for their views. And as brave as they were — you can ask your babysitter about this — not one of them had the courage to admit being a Royals fan.
Yes, it is hard being a Royals fan in these troubled times. But, take comfort in this: You are doing the right thing. Yes, as you say, some of your daycare friends take the easy route and choose the Yankees or Red Sox or Cardinals as their favorite teams. My dear friend, you will run into these kinds of people all your life. They will cut you off on highways. They will go through the 12-items-and-under supermarket lane with enough food to feed the Three Tenors. They will push their airline seats all the way back into your pelvis on overseas flights.
You are different. You say, “I will love the Royals, no matter what.” You are worth so much more than the kid who ran out to pick up a Chicago White Sox hat last year.
Then you ask me: “Do the Royals have a chance or am I kidding myself?”
It’s March. Everyone has a chance in March. Who thought the White Sox would win the World Series last year? Who thought the 2003 Royals would stay in first place until late August? Who thought the Atlanta Braves could be transformed from the worst team in baseball into a 14-time division champion?
Baseball is a game of hope. In your young heart, you already understand that.
You ask: “What should I tell my friends when I say the Royals are getting better?” You can tell them that Ambiorix Burgos throws 99 mph and has a split-fingered fastball that dives harder than a soccer player in the penalty box. You can tell them that Denny Bautista has so much stuff that one game last year, in Anaheim, he had the Angels begging for mercy. You can say David DeJesus plays the game hard and right and he could be the latest star to play center field in Kansas City.
Mike Sweeney can hit, Reggie Sanders has played in the World Series three times this decade, Andrew Sisco is so big and strong he can scare a hitter out, Grudzielanek to Mientkiewicz is a smooth-sounding 10-vowel out, Alex Gordon has a sweet swing and that star look, the lights may have turned on for Mark Teahen, Mike MacDougal was blowing away hitters again most of last season, Billy Butler is almost there.
Hope is what you make it. It’s easy to be negative about the Royals now. If you want reasons to believe the Royals will lose 100 games again, you won’t have far to look. Turn on your radio. Open up a newspaper. Pick up a preseason magazine. Click on the Internet. Ask anyone. When a team is down, people pile on. The Royals are way down. Few will stand up for them now.
That’s your job. Stand up for them. I can remember being your age, lying in bed, listening to Fred and Denny on a radio I hid under my pillow. My team was the Kansas City Royals, too, and they were terrible (even with their star centerfielder, Willie Wilson), but I always believed things would turn. Every March, I had rabid arguments with family and friends. I would shout, “This is the year.”
They would shout, “No it’s not.”
I grew older, and I realized they were right. And I’ll tell you a little secret: I never loved sports quite as much after I realized that.
When you get older you might lose some of your hope. It happens. There is something about the years that is hard to explain to a 6-month-old. You start complaining that the owner doesn’t spend enough money and the general manager is dumb and the star player doesn’t care. You might even grow so discouraged that you stop caring at all.
I wish this for you: That you will never lose your hope. You’re right. Angel Berroa might win the Gold Glove this year. Runelvys Hernandez might win 20 games. Emil Brown could hit 30 home runs. The Royals are going to win the American League Central this year. Hold on to that. We have no shortage of cynical fans in this world. And if you don’t know what the word “cynical” means, I would ask you not to look it up. You don’t need to know yet.
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