Like a lot of parents, I struggle with how and when to push my kids. To be honest, I don’t push much: if they want to do something, I let them do it. If they aren’t interested, I’m not going to force them to kick a soccer ball for two hours. But I do think a lot about how I’ll handle these situations as they get older and begin getting into activities.
For now, I’m not going to talk about the NCAA tournament. I need to find the right tone so that I don’t anger the Woof Gods. I still have a few superstitions left. I did want to quickly recap M.’s first trip to Chuck E. Cheese’s last week. You may recall that she was invited to a birthday party for a classmate in January, but the flu beat her down that day and we had to stay home.
Some quick thoughts on the tournament before I head to Gymboree. Regarding KU, I’m surprisingly zen about them. I’d love it if their fulfilled their potential and went deep; it would certainly be a lot of fun. But, if they lose early, I’m not going to let it ruin the season for me as a fan. I know that’s a familiar refrain around here these days, but I honestly believe it.
The last time I attended a political rally was in 1992. I figured I was overdue, so I checked out Barack HUSSEIN Obama’s visit to Indianapolis Saturday. The Senator visited in advance of the May 6 Indiana primary, which given the closeness of the Democratic nomination race, is suddenly very important. Here are some observations and thoughts. The event took place at a high school on the far west side of Indianapolis, near the airport, and was open only to people who had a ticket.
I was watching the Backyardigans with the girls today and wondered, do people outside of circuses walk on tightropes anymore? I’m talking about real tightropes, not metaphorical ones. Maybe it wasn’t as often as it seemed, but when I was little, back in the mid-70s, it seemed like some joker was walking across Niagara Falls or between the TwinTowers on a tight rope every other week.
First off, I watched shockingly few hours of basketball during championship week. Part of that was because S. was on the day shift, so it was just me and the girls. By the time the games started each day, the girls had seen enough TV already, and I really needed to get them doing something active, rather than just switch to hoops. So, outside the KU games, I watched probably a total of an hour of basketball.
That’s what is happening all over the Middle East this morning. Why? Because the terrorists have won again. Yes, Indiana’s 7th congressional district elected a Muslim - a MUSLIM! - to represent them in the US House of Representatives for the next ten months. It’s a well documented fact that every single Muslim in the world has the exact same world and political view (Muslims never, ever fight each other), so surely this means our enemies are taking over our government.
Tonight was dads’ night at M.’s preschool. There’s nothing quite like spending an hour with a bunch of wound-up three and four year olds. As with their Christmas program, M. had been letting details of what was going to happen tonight slip for a couple weeks. They’ve been diligently practicing songs and on occasion she would bust into one in front of me. So I kind of knew what was coming.
Today, while playing in her toy kitchen, M. said the following things: “I’m just going to pop this into the fridge.” And, “Hi, I’m Rachael Ray.” And we almost never watch any of her shows anymore. I’d prefer she pick up some proper Italian pronunciations from <a href=“http://www.giadadelaurentiis.com/">Giada</a>.
Every now and then, I write something and forget to post it. What lies below is an example of that. I only thought of this while reading a book this week that revolved around the same subject. I’m glad I found it. I finally caught VH1’s documentary <a href=“http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/vh1_rock_docs/122259/episode.jhtml">NY 77: The Coolest Year in Hell</a> this week. If you’re a fan of music, pop culture, or just American history, you owe it yourself to track it down.
Senior Night is awesome. It might be my favorite part of the basketball season, which I think shows that I’m aging a little bit. I’ve become a sucker for saying thank you and goodbye to the players that have represented your team for four years. I love looking back and seeing how players have grown over their four years on campus, both as players and people. And perhaps my favorite part is how, at least at KU, it seems like the guys at the end of the bench who never get to play always come up big on Senior Night (Big being relative, of course).
I donned my reporter’s hat Saturday and drove down to the natatorium at IUPUI to cover the Indiana boys swimming and diving championships. I hung out with some swimmers in high school, so I understand how swimmers are second only to wrestlers when it comes to strange high school athletes, but had never been to a proper meet. It was an interesting afternoon. First off, people go crazy at these things.
I’ve come at this a couple different ways and wasn’t terribly satisfied with the results, so I’ll give this a third shot and see what happens. It was ten years ago today (February 22) that my mom was killed in a car accident. As with any anniversary, in some ways it seems like yesterday, and in others it seems like it’s been a lot longer than ten years. As I’ve thought about this, I realized that there is about a 14 hour stretch of time from that day where I remember everything that happened, that I thought, that I said, and that I did, beginning at 6:00 PM when my step-dad called and told me she had been in an accident.
So I’m kind of addicted to eBay. We won’t get into the details, but since I finally checked it out last summer, I’ve become a bit of a fiend. I’ve sold some things, bought some things, but most tellingly bid on some stuff I absolutely did not need. Fortunately, all the Don’t Need items went to someone else. I’m not going all Woody Boyd on the Home Shopping Network. For the most part, I’ve found eBay to be awesome.
Another streak is broken. Saturday night, S. and I went to see our first movie in a theater together since 2004. One of her sisters informed us that we would be going out and she would be watching the girls, so we decided to go crazy and see a flick instead of just going to dinner. We caught Juno, which I thought was as good as everything I had heard about it.
My daughters are becoming nudists. It’s pissing me off. Yesterday, while I was off getting groceries, M. came prancing downstairs after her aborted nap buck naked, according to S.. Last night, while I was doing some stuff here in the office, she came strolling in naked again. Making matters worse was, right behind her, C. wearing only a diaper and one sock. And I’m pretty sure if she could have figured out how to get that sock off she would have.
As reported, the family has returned, intact, from our adventure to Colorado. The top of the line bullet points are that the girls earned an overall B+ for their behavior and S. and I have decided we’re not traveling with the girls again until they are both at least five. The flight out was mostly uneventful. C. was fussy for about ten minutes in the middle, but otherwise fine. M. loved the airplane toilets, which is surprising.
I forget if I’ve mentioned it, but tonight we head to Denver for a wedding and then a couple days in the mountains. It will be C.’s first trip on a plane, which of course presents all kinds of interesting scenarios. Fortunately, we’ll have two aunts and an honorary aunt sitting in the same aisle as us, so we’ll have five adults to handle two kids. And we’re flying on Frontier, which has the sweet TV screens in the seat backs.
It’s Super Tuesday. Indulge me in a little politics. It seems trite to say that I’m throwing the immense weight of the blog behind the candidacy of Barack Obama simply because he is campaigning on a promise to bring change to this country. After all. doesn’t every candidate claim to support change of one kind or another? Isn’t it more important to select a candidate that offers a platform or area of expertise that you believe best fits the nation’s needs?
Things are finally getting better here. C. was sick again all night last night. I finally broke down and got sick. A rough morning for some of us, but I’m feeling almost normal again and C. was looking much better before her nap. M. went back to school and was her now-normal bossy self upon her return. Now if we can just keep S. from regressing and getting sick tonight, we should be out of the woods.