Column: Taking my nephew to his first Cardinals game

Highlights of my trip to the arch and a Cardinals game with my nephew Lucien.

My 7-year-old nephew Lucien recently decided he wanted to go to his first St. Louis Cardinals game.

As a person who takes being both a devoted Cardinals fan and the most awesome aunt possible seriously, I promptly bought us tickets to a game during my vacation last week.

We had had a long but good day by the time we arrived to see the Cardinals take on the Astros. We took a riverboat ride in the early afternoon and then took a trip up to the top of the arch, where we looked out the tiny windows for about a minute before Lucien declared himself ready to head back down in the small -- and in his view fun -- trams that carried us up to the top. I'm pretty sure he would have preferred to ride them 30 times than look out a window for 30 seconds, no matter how spectacular the view.

One of the best things about kids, and one of my favorite things about my two nephews and niece, is how they make me stop to appreciate things I otherwise might not have noticed or how they make me appreciate something in a new way or for new reasons.

I suppose that's a bit cliché, but I still get surprised by the things he loves. For example, Lucien spotted my ironing board and iron while spending the night at my house after the game.

"Oh! An Iron!" he said in this excessively impressed and excited voice. "I've always wanted to use one of these!"

I laughed and said we didn't have anything to iron at the moment, that it was late and that it's not as much fun as he thinks anyway.

"It's fun for me," he said. "It might not be fun for you, but it's fun for me."

And suddenly I saw our whole trip in a new light.

We had arrived at Busch Stadium about 90 minutes before the game was scheduled to start and our first stop was the souvenir stand, where Lucien became the proud owner of his own foam No. 1 finger.

Then we set off to explore the stadium with him leading the way. We visited every deck, sat in the very top row and made a complete circle around the field before settling into our bleachers seats not long before game time.

I pointed out catcher Yadier Molina, who was warming up in the outfield, explained what the "bullpen" was for and tried to show him how he could follow the count and score.

Although by this time he'd already pulled my iPad out of my purse to play a game, he was clearly having a good time and told me that we should start to attend every game the Cardinals play.

"This is really cool, actually," he said in a video message we sent back to my mom and his sister, Abby. "I like staying with Rachel, and, in fact, I'm going to go here tomorrow, too. Just to tell you."

We weren't going to a game the next day, but I took that as a good sign nonetheless since I hope he one day loves baseball and the Cardinals like I do. If he doesn't, that's fine, I won't give him any trouble over it or try to force it on him. But it seems like he'd be missing out.

The newness wore off, though, and by the third inning he was playing games on the iPad and asking if we could leave. Just when I was sure he wasn't paying any attention at all he looked up and smiled at me and said, "Yadier's too slow."

I was stunned because I would have bet a significant amount of money he had no clue which player or even which team was batting by this time, but Molina had just hit into an inning-ending double play and his commentary was spot on.

This is where the conversation about the iron helped me. It reminded me that while he wasn't enjoying the game in the way I would have preferred, he was enjoying it in his own way. Some people probably would have insisted that the iPad be put away, which I did for parts of the day and game, and that he train his eyes on the field at all times, but the day was really about having some fun. And my definition of fun and his just aren't exactly the same, even at a Cardinals game.

His favorite moment of the day was easily when fireworks went off after Matt Holliday hit a home run.

My favorite moment came out of another situation that I didn't expect. I was patiently trying to tell Lucien that we weren't going to buy one of everything the vendors were selling in the stands.

For one, he barely had touched the cotton candy and slushy we already bought and, for two, the amount of cash available in my wallet was not limitless.

Both of these are hard concepts for a 7-year-old to grasp, but I did my best to explain.

At one point he thought over what I had said for a few seconds and then made a motion to the $2.91 -- change from our trip to McDonald's -- that he had in his pocket, which might as well have been $291 or $2,910 or a million in his eyes.

"Hey," he said with his eyes growing wide. "Maybe I could take you out to a ball game sometime."

Oh, how I hope he does.