Eric is on a baseball team that plays its game on Sundays, most of them out of town. Today's game was one of the few during the season that would be played here, so I took advantage of the chance to watch. And I did watch, for a while, until Alex showed up with his mom and baby brother. After that, I quite happily allowed myself to be diverted from the game.

It's a good thing I've been working out daily (more or less) on the treadmill, because Alex had me running all over the park. We were always within sight of his mother, and always on the safe side of the fence around the ball field. Other than that, though, there weren't any rules except the ones he made up as we went along. I made up a few of my own regarding boundaries, and he never failed to make a U-turn when I told him to.

Well, except for that one time. But he was just teasing, trying to make me catch him. And he giggled when I did.

Jacen slept through most of this adventure, and Kat took over the chasing for a while when I needed a breather, but I had a great day with Alex. I'm pretty sure he enjoyed it, too, assuming he enjoys it when big people take him seriously and do what he says. "Uncle Mike, up" he would say, indicating he would like me to join him as he climbed the concrete steps. Followed immediately by "Uncle Mike, down."

And we invented a game called "I'm stuck." I started it when he asked me crawl between the pipes in the fence rail. It wasn't a game, though; I really was stuck, and I told him so. After I extricated myself, he would pretend he couldn't get through the opening, showing the strain convincingly on his face and telling me he was stuck. Then he would miraculously make it through and give himself a cheerful "Yay!"
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Kat and Alex at Eric's baseball game.
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It was a breezy, overcast day, pretty typical for summer in this area except when it started to sprinkle. It wasn't raining hard enough for the baseball game to be called off, and Alex certainly wasn't intimidated by it, but wiser heads prevailed and we packed up for warmer, drier surroundings. We had fun, and I can't wait until Jacen is old enough that the two of them can gang up on me. I just hope I can still keep up by then.