Shortly after that we went to his first big-league game:
And just a few days after that, to his first playoff game at the Big House. Where he got to see the Nationals eliminated in a thrilling game 5, at the hands of the dastardly Los Angeles Dodgers:
In a game that did not end until 12:45 a.m. On a school night. God love him, he made it through the entire marathon totally dialed in and didn't wilt until the car ride home. Which ended at 3:00 a.m. Again, on a school night:
As the playoffs have progressed, Cody has fallen in love with the Chicago Cubs. The reasons for his infatuation are mostly rational. His friend, Kieran, is a Cubs fan. And the Cubs single-A affiliate, the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, often plays the PNats, and they have, objectively speaking, the best uniforms, ever. So who wouldn't want to be a Cubs fan?
Also, Cody chose the optimal moment to fall for the Cubs, just days before they broke the 71-year-old Curse of the Billy Goat.
On Saturday night, as the Cubs were playing in game 6 of the NLCS, trying to clinch their first pennant in generations, Cody and I watched the entire game from our tent. It was the campout at Cardinal, the wind was howling and the temps had dropped to the high 30s. And Cody and I snuggled into our sleeping bags and watched history unfold on the iPad. It was a moment I'll never forget. And I hope he won't, either.
All of this is Big Cody.
But he still has some little boy left in him. Which is why, on Sunday afternoon, he packed up several of his stuffies, took them outside, and assembled them to play stuffie baseball. Evidently, it was their World Series. Cody was the ace pitcher, and also their biggest bat. He informed me that he's batting an improbably .700 on the season. And this was their game 7. So Fawnie, Honey, Elkie, Patches, and others set up a somewhat non-regulation field in the front yard for the big game.
The big news is that Cordelia was allowed on the team:
No, I cannot explain the set up with the orange cones. I can, however, explain the yellow shammies: They were strategically placed so that stuffies could play the outfield without having to rest on the dirty ground.
In any event, Cody, Cordelia, and the stuffies combined to beat the opposition (me) by a mere 14-2. They they enjoyed their well-deserved World Series of Stuffies win:
