Entitled

We like sports--playing and watching.  If I had all boys I would encourage sports less out of fear that it would push out other interests.  Same with video games -- I'd worry more with boys, much like I worry more about focusing on appearances and body issues with girls.  

But we have all girls, and it turns out we have girls who like sports, which we think is good for a lot of reasons.  But we are As/Stanford/Astros fans raising Giants/49ers/Stanford/Duke fans in an age of PLENTY.

Duke has always been a contender (in basketball), so it started with that.

First, the Giants won the World Series.  Again.  Going to the parade on Halloween was a huge pain in the *ss, but the girls begged to go.  I said yes because "it's history you won't get to see again."  To which D answered (scrunching up her nose), "Yeah at least for another couple of years.  Like, maybe, third grade."

*****

Stanford is good at a lot of things, and the girls know that... but they are not exactly a football powerhouse.  Or are they? :)  The kids knew about Andrew Luck and the Orange Bowl/Fiesta Bowl, but we had told them Stanford wasn't going to be that good this year.  Then football season started.  First, we took them to the Stanford/USC game.  The kids loved getting all Stanford'ed up before the game.  D lost a tooth, but that was all we lost.  The kids were mesmerized.  We stormed the field after.

I went to the Pac 12 Championship while the girls were at Duke, and when I told them Stanford was going to the Rose Bowl, they said with confidence, "And they're going to win, right?"  We watched the game from Utah, and yes, they won.  

 ******

And THEN came the NFL Playoffs.  And the Niners run.  And the Superbowl.

C: "Oh I love these guys! The Furball brothers!"
Me: "No..."
C: "Oh that's right, the Hardball brothers.  Brother against brother.  Who do their parents root for?"

D: "Can we go to the parade if they win?"
Me: "Aren't you getting a bit ahead of yourself?"
D: ughmmmmgumm" (her gutteral grrr/groan that means "my teams usually win Mom")

L: (after school one day) "Mom, Addy's dad is rooting for the Raisins! SERIOUSLY!" (he's from Baltimore)

Andrew was out of town for the Super Bowl but I had another friend flying solo and she brought her 3 kids over (identical twin girls and a boy).  The girls created a bunch of games to play before the game, including:

1. "Kick the Ball Through the Goal Posts" -- they put a goal post on the wall and made paper footballs
2. "Pin the Tail on the Niner" --they drew a Niner and then "tails" to tape on it"
3. The most popular game, according to D... "Tackle the Baltimore Raven" (or as D called it "Tackle Ray Lewis" --I may have let it slip that Ray Lewis had some issues with the law--strange world we live in where Michael Vick is never forgiven and Ray Lewis is a hero)-- you run down the hall, grab the picture on the wall, throw it on the floor, and tackle it. 

Then the game came on and the girls were avid viewers.  A few comments:

L: "Do they have bandaids for the players?"

L: "UNBELIEVABLE!!" (and she was almost on point)

C: "Mom, they sacked him!"  (And she was definitely on point--she's my sports watcher)

D: "Why are so many of the players black?"
C: "I think Jim Harbaugh just really likes black people."

C: "But Mom, they didn't even watch the game!" (Said with a bit of disgust after my dear friend and her kids left).

But alas, this one was not to be.  And you have never seen sadder girls.  I didn't even appreciate it until I complained of their crankiness post game and D moaned, "Oh Mom we are just sad!  Can't you understand??!"

And while heading to bed...

C: "At least the Giants are good."

Me (incredulously): "Charlotte, the Niners were good enough to go to the SUPER BOWL."

C: "Yeah, but not good enough to win it."

Pre-Game Sidewalk Chalk

Welcome Guests! 

Tackle the Baltimore Raven

Crushed

******

Recently, we filled out NCAA brackets.  A few weeks before we make them earn "bracket dollars" to pay for their entry.  My brother says he can hear our Wife Swap intro now..."The Dodsons encourage their children to gamble..."

D: "I have Duke going all the way.  It's a bit risky, but my teams usually win."

Then we were at a birthday party, and I walked in to find the Elite 8 on, and three dads and C watching it.  One of them tells me, bemused "she says that if Wichita State wins her bracket is in good shape."

*****

C recently pointed out to A that it was interesting that his two favorite baseball teams were the "best team in baseball and the worse team in baseball."  Perhaps we should sit them in front of more Astros games this year, or ship them off to Oakland for some humble pie. 

This is going to take a while...and I blame you Facebook, at least a little.

But I am going to catch up.  I have written things down, here and there, for the past (gulp) 7 months.  And I have let myself get paralyzed by the amount of effort it will be to catch up.  But no more.  I will write out of order.  If anyone is actually reading this anymore, you'll just have to scroll down to see where I have added in.  And I'll let you (Amall :)--thank you for motivating me!) know when I am done.

Life this year has been way more hectic than I would like and I wish I knew why.  We are all just BUSY.  And I'm not even working enough, that is the worst part.  THings will be different next year, I can feel it.  For now though, I can't miss this time.  And complete honesty, I've been a bit melancholy this past year.  That may not be for this blog, but I have to at least put it out there.  Nothing I can particularly blame it on, but perhaps I am just feeling both old and young.  If I were my father, I'd have known now for about 2 months that I had cancer, and that I was going to die young.  That isn't lost on me.

But I also blame you facebook. Yes you.  Purveyor of the humble brag.   A constant stream of "look at how great my life is?!"  I found myself feeling worse every time I checked facebook because somehow my life wasn't measuring up.  And then even when I was doing all those things on fb others were yabbering on about, I couldn't share it because then I would be like them.  While I really do like to hear from some people, I found there were people I would like more if I didn't know their fb personality.  So then I felt like maybe I was doing the same on my blog.  The whole cycle just bummed me out.

But I am over it.  I don't share this blog with anyone.  I have just enough people reading it to motivate me to keep going, but not enough to feel like I am oversharing.  My only issue is that I feel like this isn't a place to get overly personal, so I may start keeping a journal just for myself.  We'll see.  For now, this blog is still the best way for me to capture just a few moments of life that I can share later with my girls.

So here goes... my goal is one 'post' every weekday until I am caught up, no matter how small.  (I reserve the right to combine a few at the end of the week)

Oh, and Louisville just won the National Championship.  And no girls, you may not go there either.** (But I do like how much compassion you have shown for Kevin Ware.)

**For my first belated story... during the Fall C and D love to watch College Game Day and see what hat Lee Corso will put on.  Often times they will ask "Who is playing?" And I'd say something like "Arkansas and Alabama State, or 'two you schools you are not allowed to go to.'"  This year at the Father Daughter Dance Andrew was talking to another Dad about something and the guy's family went to Florida State.  C hears the name and pops up and says "Wait, Florida State, isn't that a school my Mom says I'm not allowed to go to?"

Here goes...