More... Car-Bel?

In all the excitement, I overslept. You’d think I was playing shortstop for the Cardinals.

But, no, no, I don’t forget about my boys during Post Season. I just get a little… distracted.

Anyway.

Carrie texted me that morning: “Dad woke Francis up today and he shot up saying, “Don’t be afraid! Food for the lifeguards is only one dollar on Saturdays!”

That, is my brother.

Bær walked over next. “I can fit into my Yay Taco! shirt now.”

He’s lost fifteen pounds in two weeks. No easy thing. He stroked at his beard. A habit I like to call “Beard Petting”…

“The Cardinals do that during Post Season, too,” I told him. “I’ve seen Chris Carpenter eating his beard before.”

Bær demonstrated this possibility.

“So… people still comment on your beard all the time, eh?”

“Yup.”

“I guess I just always thought big beards were… common.”

Bær just looked at me. “They call me – The Beard – at work. In fact, they’re having ‘Beard-tober’ this month.”

I assumed he was winning.

“Actually, it’s not a competition. It’s a celebration. Joe says his beard is going to come in gray, but he’s only 35…”

[I call this the Lance Berkman Effect.]

“…so we call him Gray Beard… Clever.”

Of course, there was also that conversation from late, late Friday night…

“So,” Bær told me, “I asked Puck if he wanted to play a sport or an instrument. He said instrument. So we looked at some pictures, and he seemed pretty set on the hammered dulcimer.”

“Oh dear.”

“Then he wanted to play the flute.”

“Oh wow…”

Anyway, celebrating Theodore’s 65th birthday in a fashion… I drowned in baseball clips and articles while Puck played with his buddy from South Africa at the Silverspoon’s, and burned his name on a stick with a magnifying glass, Bær supervising. Puck was also careful to keep me from too many chocolate chip cookies, baked by Gloria…

“You only get one, Mom, because I want you to stay healthy.”

3:00PM. Game Two. Adrenaline rush. And I was only sitting on the couch watching the television, trying to keep my hands from sweating. Well, not trying that hard. Win, and pumped.

I think Bær was a little relieved when he realized post season didn’t, in fact, actually last four months. Not sure how he missed that basic life fact…