Saturday, April 24, 2010

First Baseball Game at Citifield



Joon and I grew up rooting for the Mets since we were kids. Being the hardcore fan that he is, Joon couldn't wait to take his little boy to his first ball game. He bought tickets as soon as they went on sale for opening day 2010 at Citifield. He debated as to what little B would wear. I, on the other hand, couldn't stop myself from thinking about all of the necessary planning involved in taking an infant to a baseball game.

These are just a few of the things that came to my mind immediately after Joon told us we would be going to the game:

1. Does the stadium allow for strollers?
If yes, where would we park the stroller when we're seated? If not, how will we carry the baby there? How will we carry baby around the stadium?

2. Will our seats be near the aisle? Will I have to get up a billion times if baby doesn't want to stay seated? What if the people sitting next to us get annoyed?

3. When baby needs to be changed, will I have to change him in the women's restroom?

4. Where and when will baby be fed?

5. How will we dress the baby? What if he's too hot? What if it's too cold?

6. What should we pack in our diaper bag?

7. Do we take our DSLR or our point and shoot?


As you can imagine, I was only making myself more anxious than I already am. After some research before going to the game and having gone to the game, here are the answers to my earlier questions:

1. Some stadiums allow strollers and have designated stroller parking areas. However, these parking areas only allow for umbrella strollers which can be folded up and are compact enough to fit into a tiny area. So if you have any other kind, you have to come up with a plan B. Since our Bugaboo is no where near being compact, we decided to use our Baby Bjorn. It was definitely a good idea because we were able to have B face outward and observe everything going on around him rather than using our other carrier (which I typically prefer).





2. We were seated 4 seats away from an aisle, so it wasn't so bad. We did end up feeling badly since we had to get up several times when B was getting fussy from the noise, to change him, to feed him, and to avoid the hot beams of the sun. Next time, we are definitely going to try to get aisle seats so that we don't have to bother anyone!

3. Citifield had restrooms but they are usually locked, so you have to get a key from someone who works there, which was annoying.

4. We ended up feeding B only one time while we were there. Our tickets gave us access to an indoor, air-conditioned area with a lounge area. I highly recommend trying to work this into your ticket deal. It was great relief being able to drop all of our stuff, and sit comfortably for a while with baby on the couch (on a blanket of course) and not have to carry the baby the entire time.

5. Although Joon carefully planned B's outfit based on what he thought looked best, I knew we had more to consider. I found myself checking the weather forecast for a week before the game. We were lucky to go on a day when there was good sunshine with a nice breeze. B was dressed in a short sleeved shirt with thin sweatpants. It seemed perfect for a while, but we were seated, the sun was shining directly onto us so it was SO incredibly hot! When we got up to walk around the stadium, we were under the shade and it was ridiculously cold! We then put him in a long sleeved shirt.



6. In our diaper bag we had the usual stuff. The only additional thing that we packed was a long sleeved shirt and extra diapers.

7. We didn't want to have to schlep so much stuff with us since we didn't have our stroller to hang things onto and since we were taking the subway for a stop. We decided to take our DSLR because we figured that since this was B's first ball game, we should try to take nice photos for him to look back at when he's older.

Family photo time

100th Day Celebration



The 100th day of baby's life is considered to be a huge milestone in the Korean culture.

In honor of Ben's 100th day birthday on March 28, my parents and mother-in-law joined us to celebrate. My mother arranged a mini-spread of different types of foods on our dining table so that we could take the typical family photos standing behind it.







The cake reads, "Happy 100th day".



I can't believe how time really flies!