I believe I chose wisely when I decided to scale back the basketball blogging this year. Evidence is my experience watching Saturday’s Kansas-Pacific game. I had a babysitter so I could study, and fortunately she didn’t need to leave until about 3:30. So my “study break” began at the tip-off in Lawrence. At about the 8:00 mark of the first half, I reclaimed my daughter. For the first few minutes, she sat on my lap staring at the TV, waiting for “her player” CJ Giles to get into the game. When he didn’t, she started to get frustrated and fussy. I flipped her onto her stomach and laid her over my legs, which were propped on the ottoman. She loved it, because she could gnaw on my knees (We’ve yet to have the discussion about not gnawing on your daddy’s knees) and still see the TV. The last five minutes of the first half were exceptionally ugly by both teams. M. protested by puking all over my left leg. I spent the last 50 seconds of the half cleaning up with her slobber diaper and angling my body so there was no run-off onto the couch. That’s a real fan! No way was I getting up until there was an extended stop in play!

At halftime, I brought her upstairs to try to get her distracted and tired for the second half. She started the second half in her new Exersaucer (Santa came early in Indy). She was interested and active, but proceeded to puke two more times. We then entered the wild mood swing phase of the afternoon. Laughter and smiles one minute. Screaming the next. I must admit I probably set it off when I leapt out of my seat, pumped my fist, and yelled when Wayne Simien threw down a dunk. Back and forth until she finally lost it for an extended period. It was a solid five minute outburst, during which I couldn’t hear a thing the announcers were saying. Good times. I finally found the right combination of position, booty patting, and binky to get her to pass out on me. She slept on me for the last ten minutes of the game, which meant I watched in silence. See, there’s no possible way for me to blog under these circumstances!

Worth noting the entire time I’ve been typing this, she’s been sitting in her bouncy seat, staring at me with a sly grin as if she knows I’m writing about her. Smart kid.