Mommy?

This is a video of Aiden showing off some of his letter skills.  As a bonus, at the end of the video he refers to a certain well known, female teen singing sensation as "mom."

Priceless.

It should be noted that Aiden also recentley saw a picture of Morgan Freeman and said, "Pop-Pop."  

So... I'd say his facial recognition is a little suspect at this point.

Fans for Life

After the hooplah of last year's fairy tale ending, the conclusion to the 2009 World Series was a tough pill to swallow.  We were hoping for a miracle, but instead we'll have to settle for a season filled with great memories... just without a championship trophy at the end.

Looking at this team, who holds so much of our collective admiration, it's hard to find any fault or lay any blame.  What a pleasure it has been watching them play out the season with such guts and gusto.  If only every year and every team were so entertaining.

One of the things I love about baseball is the way that even when you lose, there is always another game tomorrow.  Another chance to turn things around, to pick up the pieces, to make things right.  And now, finally, when the very last game has actually been played, it's good to know that another season already looms on the horizon.  And, speaking for the fans in this house, when the time comes around to start all over again- we'll be ready.

Still Believing...

Well Phils fans, its come to this: Tonight the fate of the Phillies season will rest on the very capable shoulders of ace pitcher Cliff Lee.  If anyone is capable of turning this thing around it's this guy, and win or lose, there is no one I would rather see step onto the mound for the Fightins then him.  

Go get 'em Phils.

It's Chicken Time!

Right now we are sitting on our couch, watching the Phillies game.  It's a big game to say the least.  It would be a bit of an exaggeration  (although not that much) to say that the Phillies season hangs in the balance tonight.  Given the gravity of the situation you might be expecting a Phillies post here, but not tonight, no sir.

There are more important matters at hand this evening.  Specifically: chicken costumes.

As you may have already surmised, Aiden dressed up as a chicken this year for Halloween!  And as this first pictures clearly shows his intial reaction was not a positive one.

Luckily we found out that toddlers are fairly easy to bribe.  Between computer games...

...snacks...

...and watching Elmo, we were eventually able to convince him that maybe the chicken costume was not so bad.

He made his first chicken appearance at a Halloween parade for the 'Mommy and Me' class that Jen takes him too.  Things went pretty smoothly, and Chicken Aiden was a big hit.

The next day we went to a Halloween event at church where, once again, Aiden was loving the chicken life.

The party really got started when Aiden discovered this huge bunch of balloons.

The night ended with a visit to Mimi and Pop-Pop's house.  Aiden got to show off his costume one more time to his grandparents and some obliging neighbors.

All in all it was a fun Halloween weekend.  Of course, I can think of one thing that would really cap things off... a Philies victory!  Go Phils!

Have an Egg-cellent Halloween!

We'll post more pictures of Aiden in his full Halloween get-up soon, but until then here is a little preview...

Everyone have  a fun and safe Halloween!

Oh... and go Phils!!

Funny

Here is a funny article from the fake news site The Onion to help pass the time while waiting for tonights game. 

Go Phils.

Cool Hand Cliff

Apparently not knowing the meaning of the word "pressure" Cliff Lee took the mound last night and gave the performance of a lifetime.  He mowed down the powerful Yankees lineup, he dazzled with some lightning glove work, and to top it all off, his reaction to the whole thing basically amounted to:  "so what?"  (watch it all here by the way.)

Cliff Lee, it seems, is the king of cool.

I heard on the radio this morning Cliff Lee called "ruthlessly professional." I'd say thats true, not only for Lee, but for the Phillies as a whole.  

 Yup, there is no doubt about it: this Phillies team has ice their veins. 

 Last night it was Lee and Utley that lead the charge, tonight it will be someone else.  As a Phillies fan, that is very exciting.  

But as a Phillies opponent... that must be downright scary.

Go Time.

After a long, grueling regular season, a tough-as-nails, gut-check post season, and a painful, twiddle your thumbs layoff, it's finally here.  We are exactly where we hoped we'd be, preparing to play the game we wanted to play, and facing the team we always hoped we'd face.  

For the last two years the Phillies have only ever lost one game in any of their playoff series.  I don't think I'm going to far out on a limb to venture that that'll be stopping here.  This series will be a battle, a gritty grind-it-out chessmatch, and, for the Phillies, a true test.  If this series goes poorly for the Phils, they'll be remembered as a great team- a truly memorable team.  If the Phils take this series and run with it (as we know full well that they will) then we are talking epic, we are talking all time, we are talking best ever.

I remember wondering after last years World Series victory how the team could possibly top that magical and memorable season.  Well how do these storylines sound to you?  

The 2008 World Champion Phillies return to the 2009 Series to succesfully defend their title against the evil empire Yankees!  

Mid season pickup and staff ace Cliff Lee wins two world series games to be named 2009 World Series MVP!!

Brad Lidge, after a regular season filled with frustration and disappointment, reemerges in the post season to lead the Phillies to a championship!!!

Watching this Phillies team over the course of this year I don't just feel like they can make these hopes into reality, I really believe that they will.

Towel Boy

More or less since Aiden's birth we have been on a quest to indoctrinate him into the brother (and sister) hood of Phillies fandom.  As an essential step in his development during a recent game we decided to teach him the finer points of rally towel use.  

Rally towels are basically just little white disthtowels, printed with a Phillies logo, that they give out at games for fans to wave.  You might think that waving printed hankies at the opposing team might seem a little wimpy. Actually though, when you put about 40,000 of those hankies together and back them with the bellowing of rapid fans, I think it can be downright scary.

So we took a video, of course, of Aiden getting into the rally towel action.  You'll notice, however, that Aiden tends to use the rally towel more as a "rally turban."  Its ok though, I suppose the spirit is the same...

Good News, Bad News

Good News:  The Phillies are going back to the World Series!  Woo hoo!!

Bad News:  The first game is not until Wednesday, so we've still got 4 days of eager anticipation until the first pitch is thrown out.  

Good News:  We'll probably play the Yankees, which (after our inevitable victory) will validate the Phils as one of the great baseball teams of ours or any generation.

Bad News:  We'll probably play the Yankees, which (despite our inevitable victory) will be a battle to the end against the team with by far the best regular season record in all of baseball.

Good News:  This little layoff will give me the chance to get back this blogs primary purpose of documenting every little aspect of Aiden's life.

Bad News:  Game or no game I almost certainly won't be able to resist some superfluous Phillies posting.

Good News:  I found this cool video of Phillies fans talking about why this team means so much to the city, and how good they feel about the Phillies chances to repeat as champs.

Bad News:  Ummm... no bad news here.  It's just a great video.  Enjoy!