"The Stadium"

Yesterday Eric Jr. and I attended a Chicago Wolves game. The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN - www.foodallergy.org) worked collaboratively with the Wolves organization to create a "peanut free" venue. This way all the kids with peanut allergies can come to the game and watch it without concern of exposure to the allergen.  Codi gave me permission to get the most expensive tickets so Jr. could see what was going on.  The beauty of the Chicago Wolves is the best seats only cost $26. My biggest concern was whether or not Jr. would last beyond the first period. Fortunately there were 5 seats open on either side of us so he had some room to roam. Aside from that, he ate a ridiculous amount of Teddy Grahams and pretzels, not to mention "Fun Bites," a "cereal bar," and a full water bottle (which I regretted this morning) which helped keep him occupied.

At one point during the game a fight broke out (a pretty good one I might add), and I wondered if I should let Jr. watch it. (Over protective father - I know.)  As I looked over at Jr., I noticed he didn't even care about the fight, at which point I wondered, "who doesn't want to watch two guys pummel one another on ice skates?" Nevertheless, we made it nearly through the third period of the game. We danced at our seats in between periods and tried to get the mascot, "Skates" to throw us a free T-shirt, but the old wolf must have bad vision because I don't know how you couldn't throw a shirt to my kid!  The couple behind us even complimented Jr. on how well behaved he was throughout the game, and that makes for a proud dad. As we were out in the parking lot, Jr. said, "I had fun with Daddy at the Stadium!" Looks like we are going to have to go again - which is fine by me.

Eric

P.S. It was a surreal feeling to be driving to this game with Jr., because when I was a kid my dad took me to the Allstate Arena, formerly known as the Rosemont Horizon to watch the Chicago Power (indoor soccer) and the Wolves.  Dad is probably shaking his head (and my mom is smiling with pride) while reading this because I paid for parking instead of trying to park in the Target lot for free and I not only paid full price for our tickets, but I sat in the seats I paid for. Sorry Dad, maybe that skips a generation!