Sunday was the day! Matt got Parker tickets to the Texans game for his birthday and Parker was soooo excited. Matt has been out of town, so Parker and I got to have our very own (and very exclusive) date. Of course, Bailey still had to dress the part, even though she stayed home with Granbob.
Parker asked to look at his ticket everyday and finally, FINALLY, Sunday was the day when he got to use it!
After a long (and I mean looooong) ride to Reliant stadium and waiting forever to park in the red lot (“But mom, this parking lot isn’t red! It is just grey.”) we were there! Parker held onto my hand with a bit more squeeze than usual…it was all pretty new and exciting. We had to walk a million Parker-miles to get into the stadium, and then a million more to our seats once we were inside. Parker’s eyes were bulging out of his head as he took it all in. At long last, we settled in to section 350, row N, seats 5 and 6!
At that moment, the Texans scored a touchdown! Yay!! The next moment, the victory canon blasted an ear-splitting boom that filled the stadium. Decidedly not yay. Not yay at all. Bless his heart, Parker is so very sensitive to noise – his little hands flew up to cover his ears, and they stayed glued there for the next ten minutes solid. No exaggeration. 
Finally, he turned to me and his little eyes were brimming with tears. ”Mommy, I want to go home,” he squeaked. I was so disappointed because I knew, I knew how much he had been looking forward to this and that he would love it if he could just get past the noise.
I launched into full-on distraction mode. We loaded up on nachos, peanuts, beer (for me!!), and I let Parker get his first very own Dr. Pepper.
He was still a bit hesitant to return to our seats, but I explained to him that the canon sound only happened when the Texans scored and I promised to give him advanced warning so he could cover his ears. Guess who abruptly stopped cheering for the Texans offense?
I pointed out the real, live #80 Andre Johnson and P-Bo was star struck.
[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8926788822295227940]
He also had his eye on the Texans cheerleaders, a handful of whom we had seen in person last week at the opening of the Texans store in the mall. I couldn’t believe that these gyrating women had already caught his attention, but apparently, he was only interested in their geometry…
[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8513290877391813123&hl=en]
We were able to hang in there for almost the entire game. I wouldn’t say that Parker was ever able to relax…his hands were constantly at the ready. Of course, having the Jumbo-tron flash messages like this didn’t help much, either:
But all in all, we had an awesome time. I loved the chance to hang out with just my boy and hope to do it again soon. Somewhere quiet.
Turns out there was a little Matthew Thomas Boles there with us, after all. 
Aw, what a great mommy/son outing you guys had! (and Bailey is the cutest little cheerleader ever)
What a wonderful experience for you, if not Parker. I love little boys; have two myself.