Melody's Memories: GIG 'EM...well, almost.

We attempted our first A&M football game with Ryleigh this weekend. Notice I used the word "attempt." You see, Jesse has a friend from school who manages the football field (Kyle Field), and he was able to get us two tickets for this weekend's game. We were pumped! And, I mean, PUMPED! We sang Ryleigh the fight song all week long, and I think I had at least two dreams about the game the night before. We discussed whether or not we should take Ryleigh, but ultimately we were just so excited about taking her to her first Aggie game, that excitement over-ruled logic.

The night before, we got everything ready. I washed Ryleigh's maroon "lil Aggie" onesie and her blue jean skirt. I laid out her Aggie socks, and packed her Aggie bib, baby sunscreen, and white bonnett. Man-- she looked super cute! We got the Baby B'Jorn out and ready. I even charged the video camera.

We woke up Saturday morning and got ready to leave. Upon further inspection, I realized that I did NOT charge the video camera and it was dead. And would you believe that we did not see a single Radio Shack to buy an AC adapter the entire trip up? Strike 1.

Once we got there, we were pumped again. For those of you who have not been to Aggieland on a game day, you really are missing out. The atmosphere is intoxicating. People everywhere, dressed from head to toe in maroon, everyone smiling and saying "howdy"...gets me excited just thinking about it! When we parked, I tried to feed Ryleigh and Jesse lathered her in sunscreen. We loaded her in the Baby B'Jorn, put her bonnet on her head, and headed to campus.

We were a few hours early, so we got hamburgers and went to eat inside the air conditioned MSC (student center)...which was the same plan as everyone else! :) Ryleigh kept staring all around, taking in the hundreds of people and noise everywhere. People kept coming over to tell us how precious she was and how great it is that we were 'raising her right' and 'starting her early.' Jesse and I were both beaming, proud, and so excited to share in the experience of it all.

Then we headed to the stadium for the game. She did fine under the stands, but the minute we walked out into the stadium, she started crying. I thought she might be hungry, since she did not eat much before, and it had been over 2 hours anyway. Stupid me, I decided to try to give her another bottle of the pre-made formula. Now she is screaming. They played the national anthem and the drum CORE started to lead the Aggies out to the field. Ryleigh was screaming by this point. Jesse just sat down and tried to calm her down, while the rest of the stadium was standing, screaming, and singing. At the end of the entrance, two jets flew over the stadium, and that did it. The noise was too much. She was officially mad and screaming. I took her down under the stands. She would not calm down. I took her to the bathroom and tried to make her other bottle that she likes; she would not take it. Finally, I went in to the air conditioned first aid room. I paced around for 35 minutes trying to get her to stop screaming. Honestly, it was very similar to the incident last week where she was completely inconsolable. Strike 2.

Needless to say, I spent the first half of the game sitting in first aid room, trying to keep Ryleigh happy. Jesse came down and checked on us after the 1st quarter and then again at halftime. The Aggies were up 19 to 0, so we finally just decided it was not worth it, and we would just drive home. She slept the first 30 minutes we were in the car and then started screaming again, and cried most of the way home. To make matters worse, we listened to the game on the way home, only to hear about the other team coming back, and going into 3 overtimes!!! Strike 3.

What we thought would be a fun, exciting day turned into a miserable, long day. We were all tired and frustrated when we got home. Guess we wont be attempting any more Aggie football games with Ryleigh this season.