From the mouth of babes - BANANA

MONDAY NIGHT, EMILY and I took my little niece, Erin, to see the Rockies play the Nationals at Coors Field in Denver. Erin turns 11 on Friday and has grown up waaaaayyyy too fast. She knows everything about the Rockies - "Cargo (Carlos Gonzalez) hurt his finger AGAIN!" she said. She watches MLB Network's Quick Pitch before every game. She knows her team isn't very good. But she loves her Rockies.

Erin brought her glove and her scorebook. The game, unfortunately, was not very good and Erin gave up keeping score in the ninth inning, as it became apparent the Rockies were going to lose again.

"BANANA" said the little girl in the middle.

Coors Field is pretty awesome. We took the train from Littleton right downtown and walked a few blocks. We sat in the first section of outfield seats. Jason Werth of the Nationals was playing left field right in front of us, and when I told Erin he was from Springfield near Quincy, the guy in front of us turned around and said, "We're from Illinois too!"

We bought Erin a stuffed Rockies mascot for her birthday. She named him Rocky and decided he was the best thing ever. She had Dipping Dots and declared them delicious. Not even a bad baseball team kept her from having a grand time with Uncle Rodney and Big Cousin Emily.

The best part of the night was the train ride back to Littleton.

Of course we were sitting right next to a woman with a bunch of kids. Of course she had a really loud voice and grating laugh. Of course she said, to the whole train, "I know! Let's play the alphabet game!" Emily looked at me and said, "She reminds me of Sarah Palin. Ding ding ding."

After about the 10th time of "Name an animal that starts with the letter M," even little Erin became exasperated. The category was "name a fruit that starts with the letter B." There was deafening silence on the train. Erin was playing with Emily's phone. Without looking up, she finally blurted, "BANANA!"

Of course Mrs. Loud Voice thought it was awesome and said, "That's right! Ding ding ding! Thank you for playing the train alphabet game with us." Erin didn't even look up. Emily and I fell off our chairs, we were laughing so hard. Then Erin said, "Sorrryyy." That made us laugh even more.

I think Erin yelled out another answer, something about a Mako Shark. Mrs. Loud Voice loved it. Then they all got off the train, and it was blissfully quiet.

"That," I said to Erin, "was hilarious. Banana!"

"Sorrryyy," Erin said. And we fell off our chairs again.

So. The moral of the story is ... bananas are good for you when dealing with loud voices.

And, or course, Erin rocks!