Shot to the heart

Thursday night, Jeff came home and said he was thinking of going to an Indians baseball game with our friend Ed Kaufmann. Nothing odd about that, but when Ali heard of his plans, she asked if she could go to.

I thought Jeff was going to fall down dead. Happily dead. But dead. You know he's near deaf, and so does he.

"What did you say?" he asked the light of his life, his hand on his heart.

"Can I go to the baseball game, too, Daddy?" she asked.

Jeff has lamented loud and often that his greatest pain in life is that Ali doesn't love baseball and the Red Sox as much as he does. She's definitely a Sox fan and knows the Yankees are evil SOBs, but she can take baseball or leave it. Her earlier reasons for going to the Vic have been to play on the bleachers, to get ice cream and to play those silly games as you come through the gate.

"Honey, why do you want to go to the game?" he asked, hope clearly breaking through even as he fought it down like a gladiator facing a hungry lion. "It's kind of chilly and it might even rain."

"I just want to be with you," she said.

Now I'm not sure what game Alison was really playing at, but she toppled Captain Reed with those seven words. I'm not sure he truly fell for it or if he was as suspicious as I was, but he swooped her up and said, "OK."

My knee's still bothering me, so I stayed home. They came in less than two hours later, chattering like old pals. The game had been cancelled due to wet grass but they'd managed some lemonade and ice cream and apparently had a great time.

I don't know that they would have had as great a time had they sat through more than a few innings in a drizzly April rain, but we'll never know. Jeff was over the moon. Ali was happy, and all was right with my world.

Saturday morning we all went to church for mass, which featured most of Ali's class receiving communion for the first time. All year long, she'd gone through the instruction with them but was firm in not wanting to actually become catholic. On Wednesday, she springs it on us that she wants to go to the service.

"I have been practicing all year long, I don't want to have wasted all that time," she explained.

I had to ask the teacher if she could, if she needed a white dress, what do we do, where do we go? I was a mess. We got the dress Friday after school and made it through just fine. It was really sweet. All those kids -- even David Whitamore -- scrubbed and polished. Looking like fresh little flowers.

Ali wore pink and looked as sweet as can be. She and Dominic (the boy who asked if he could kiss her) were the only heathens to show. They got to pass out programs, and they got a blessing instead of communion. I think they had fun just sitting together and watching the show.

We hightailed it out of church in time to pick up Alison's shiny new birthday bike. It's hot pink, but not frilly, and we don't yet have its basket put on, but she's had it out and is pretty good on it. Stopping is still a bit of a challenge, but she's getting it.

Jeff grumbled a bit about never having gotten a birthday present early when he was kid. But she was happily pedaling away yesterday anyway -- taking advantage of what could be a break in the weather. We're forecast for several more days of rain, which was his rationale for breaking out the bike a tad bit early. Her birthday is Tuesday, so we had her party this afternoon. Getting the bike early didn't seem like a big thing to me.

Her party was at Laser Flash, and one of her little friends was a no-show. That meant we had an opening, and Jeff took full advantage. Little Ty came out, eyes glowing, hands in the air declaring it "awesome." Jeff Reed was only slightly less effusive. He's planning on going back with friends from the office.

Unless Ali asks him first...