Screaming Eagles

Today, we went to a DC United (aka Screaming Eagles) soccer game. For no particular reason, I'm something of a fan of DC United and have been thinking about trying to take Margaret to a game for a while. Next weekend when David Beckham comes to town could be fun, but Abby and the kids will be in Minnesota (Maddie and I will either head to the mountains or will enjoy some blessed sleep at home.) I looked through the schedule for the rest of the season and decided that there aren't many other games that would work given our tight bedtime schedule. Although the weather report predicted thunderstorms, we decided we'd chance it. So we took the Metro to the game, lots of fun in itself, and scalped some tickets in the shade. (Also, it didn't rain at all.)

We had a pretty good time. DC United is still playing in RFK Stadium, the old Redskins' stadium, which is a pretty cavernous venue to watch soccer, especially when the crowd is the typical, smaller U.S. soccer crowd. The lower sections directly across the field from us were pretty raucous with lots of chants and songs which was fun to watch. But overall the crowd was pretty sedate. Margaret wore her Azurri (Del Piero) jersey that an Italian friend brought back for us after the last World Cup. Alas, it didn't do much good for Italy who lost to Spain in Euro 2008 today (we did get some good comments from people.) We sat in a section full of young girls in soccer uniforms and at some point, I turned to Abby and said, "This may be a preview of our future life." Margaret just gaped at the girls around us and mimicked them by waving the free towel that we got at the gate. For some reason, Margaret was more fidgety at this game than she was at the baseball game. About the only thing that really settled her down was her first bucket of popcorn. After an initial hesitant taste, she sat and wolfed it down. DC United won 3-1, but the game was uninspiring with the Screaming Eagles giving up one of the worst goals that I've ever seen. Perhaps it's better to watch on TV and be able to do laundry during the game than to actually go to one.



Some other tidbits:

• For some inexplicable reason, Margaret has been calling her mama "Abby." E.g. "Abby, Margaret needs more milk!" It sort of reminds me of the Simpsons where Bart always calls Homer by his first name. We're not quite sure how to break her of this habit, but even Mr. Ty at daycare commented on it.
• We started a new game today called "Tell me something silly." This involves Papa saying something such as "Teddy is a...big girl." Or "Maddie is a...kitty cat." It's a bit tricky since I have to mention two things, both of which Margaret not only knows, but also knows don't go together. If I do a good job, Margaret will giggle uncontrollably at the absurdity of the statement. It turns out that this works pretty well (at least it did today) to settle Margaret down when she's fussing. And it gets her to grin for the camera - in a few of the later pictures in the sequence posted above, I'm telling Margaret silly things to make her laugh.