Adventures In Babysitting

Now that Hendrik is in his second month of life I feel like we are starting to get into the groove of this whole "baby" thing. We still have very lazy days where I feel like the 2 of us lay around on the couch all day while Kent slaves away at work. However, so far this week I have had 2 1/2 fairly productive days so I'm giving myself (and Hendrik) a pat on the back.

Anyway, Kent has been nagging me about posting on the blog, but I just feel like I don't have anything interesting to post about. Then I read this blog and feel so lame because no matter what Vanessa writes about, it's hilarious or at least interesting to read. Seriously, she could write about hanging Christmas lights and it would be the greatest thing ever.

Speaking of which, we are about to celebrate our first Christmas in our house. Remember: last year we were enjoying 85 degree days in Thailand/Cambodia. Since we'll be here we decided to decorate a little bit. And I do mean a little. See the photo for evidence. Go ahead and guess which side is ours...Our neighbors take holiday decorating seriously. It was the same at Halloween.


We'll go ahead and have a Merry Christmas anyway.

And now a few highlights of the adventures I have with Hendrik:

1. I braved an airplane ride alone with my 5 week old son. I especially loved taking him out of his car seat, folding up the stroller, taking off my shoes and pushing it all through the security x-ray all while holding said baby. I also enjoyed the looks of "Oh, please tell me that lady and her crying baby are not on my flight" from the other passengers waiting at the gate. Eat it people. My baby slept the whole way, both directions, and is ALWAYS adorable. Hendrik and I were traveling to Maryland to visit his cousin Sophia who is 2 days younger than he is. Oh and he also saw his Aunt Christy, Uncle Jonathan, and all of his cousins on my side of the family.

Sophia is not as impressed with Hendrik's smiles as I am.

Uncle Jonathan (my brother) and his daughter, Debbie. His son, Gabriel, was running around with his friends and I wasn't able to capture a picture.

2. I had my 6-week follow up with my doctor and we decided to swing by my office to say hello while we were there (I work right next door to the hospital). Now, when I was pregnant I kept waiting for crazy strangers to try and touch my belly, and luckily it never happened. Now that I actually have the baby, I've been waiting for the crazy strangers to touch/hold him. While he gets lots of oohs and aahs from everyone he passes, no one has tried to actually hold him yet. To the population at large: Thank You. I appreciate your admiration and constraint. However, as we were walking through the hallway toward my office, this lady is approaching us from the opposite direction and calls out, "What a beautiful baby." Two thoughts run through my mind: "Thank you very much, he is quite fabulous" and "Can you even see him from that far away?" Not to worry, as she gets closer and I notice she has a big bandaid over one eye with a hole cut out of it so that she can see (read: CRAZY LOOKING), she says, "May I look at him?" So I say sure, and turn him towards her so that she can look. Then she precedes to hold her hands out and ask my 6 week old if he wants to come to her. Lady, he barely holds his own neck up and you think he can gesture to indicate whom he would like to be held by? Oh yeah, and you're a complete stranger, in a hospital no less, during flu season, but yes, please hold my baby. I just politely turned Hendrik away from her, mumbled no, and bee lined for the end of the hallway. Strangers: Please don't ask to hold my baby. I don't know you. I will have to say no. And I may not be polite about it. It really depends on the day. Basically don't make me be mean to you.

Visiting Auntie Sherri at the office, she's not the crazy lady, we love her.

3. I have realized that shopping during the weekdays puts you out there with all the senior citizen shoppers. Now, I love my seniors as much as the next guy, but they definitely have their quirks. Take today for instance. Being a productive day, Hendrik and I headed out for a little shopping, stopping first at Costco. By the time we got there, I knew I had a half hour before he would need to be fed again, so I shopped as quickly as I could, sticking mainly to my list of items. I was pretty successful and decided that instead of subjecting all the other Costco shoppers to my nursing in the food court area, I would just feed him out in the car. So there I was, minding my own business, nursing my son when I see this little old lady walking up to the driver-side window. Here's how it played out:

Little Old Lady: (knocking on the window) Can you move your car back a little bit?
Me: What?
LOL: I need you to move your car back a little bit. I'm in the space in front of you and I need to move up a little more. Can you do that?
Me: (as I look down at the covered bundle currently enjoying lunch on my lap) Uh...
LOL: What? Can you? You're over the line.
Me: (again glance down) Uh...yeah...I guess so.
LOL: WHAT? (because I've refused to roll down my window and let the 20 degree air in)
Oh, do you have a baby in there?
Me: Yes
LOL: Oh, well, sorry. So can you still move back?

Lady, seriously? The best part is that she had me move back about 3 inches. What did that really do? Not to mention she had already parked her car and turned off the ignition before asking me to move. So we both had to start up our cars just so she could have her Toyota Camry parked in the spot the way she wanted it. I would also like to note that when I had originally parked there was already a car in that spot and they didn't seem to have any issues hanging out a few inches.

Whatever.

On a more positive note:

Our little Teddy Bear bundled up to go pick out a Christmas tree.

With his "token" friend.

Something's GOT to change

I have been considering my relationships to sports and how much time and emotional energy I spend on it. I mean, every year I follow my favorite team and inevitably get disappointed when they don't win it all, which they've only done twice (Cards in '06, Colts a few months later). Was the euphoria from winning it all greater than the sum of all my disappointment? Not even close. So why should I follow sports?

Well, I've realized that it's fun to care about sports. The more things you care about, the more exciting your life is, the more you have to talk about. I don't limit my caring to just sports, I care about important things (family, friends, church, God) and not-so-important things (TV shows, music, gardening, sports). I've realized that apathy is not for me. I liked to consider myself a laid-back person, but does it bug me when my plants die? Yes. Does it bother me when my favorite artist has a disappointing album? Yes. Do I hang onto these things for days, weeks, or months? No.

So I've decided that, yes, it is worth the time and emotional investment to watch sports. Plus, since I have DVR, I don't need to plan my life around watching sports. I watch it when it's on, and if I care enough about it, I'll record it and watch it at my convenience later (usually when I'm holding The Boy).

I also don't understand why anybody would watch sports without caring one way or the other about who wins. What's the point? It's like watching American Idol for the quality karaoke. You don't care about the singing (unless it's atrocious), you care about the winning. In our leisure, we want to watch anything that entertains us more than a substitute activity. To me, that's sports.

That's why college football bothers me so much. A playoff has so much potential! Take March Madness, put it into 3 jam-packed Saturdays, and think about how much entertainment that is! Plus, the timing couldn't be better. You've taken a couple weeks off of work for the holidays, so there's plenty of time to watch football.

Instead, we have 40 meaningless game and one "meaningful" game, although we're never really sure if that game has the right teams in it. As a BYU fan, I barely care about our bowl game, another boring Las Vegas bowl. Even if BYU wasn't in the playoffs, I would find all of the playoff games more interesting than BYU playing the 9th best team in the PAC-10.

Who really wants that? It's getting ridiculous. How can something this unpopular go unchanged for this long? I thought we lived in a capitalist society, where the majority gets what the majority wants?

If we had playoffs this year, how great would the match-ups be? Now, from all playoff scenarios I've heard or read about, I think the best, most-likely one would be the one found here. Although I would prefer 12 or 16 teams, I would settle for 8. Beggars can't be choosers. What I like most about this is that each conference would only be allowed one representative. Say what you will, but frankly, if you're not the champion of your own conference, then you shouldn't be the champion of the nation. The next 2 spots would go to the highest ranked non-BCS conference champions, or an Independent ranked higher. Even though this is still not completely fair, it's a step in the right direction. The difficult thing is getting rid of the pointless bowl games. Once that's done, changing it to 12 or 16 teams will be much easier.

Using that format, what would we have (using the BCS poll)?

1. Bama vs Ga Tech
2. Texas vs Ohio St
3. Cincy vs Oregon
4. TCU vs Boise

Although TCU still plays Boise St (a matchup that nobody wanted except the BCS conferences-do you realize that the only ranked team from a BCS conf that's playing a non-BCS team is Oregon St? More on this below...) at least the winner would go on to the 2nd round to play a BCS team in either Bama or Ga Tech.

But look at the games! Aren't they that much more compelling because each of those teams has a shot? If you're TCU, you have to beat Boise, then maybe Bama and Texas to win it all. I'd watch each one of these games from kickoff to the last down. It's a fantasy every college football fan has.

But the bowls want to keep the monopoly on their money. Did you know that each of the major bowls has a CEO? They generate so much revenue through one game to support an entire company for a year! How hard do you think that CEO works? Maybe 5 days a year? Or does he have a second job to supplement his huge salary? Did you know that the Rose Bowl CEO makes around 250K?

Playoffs will generate more money, but these greedy bowl reps are worried about their shares. If they're so greedy, why can't the NCAA guarantee them their current salary just to make them happy? Instead, they're intent on doing everything to protect the BCS, even scheduling bowls to keep the big conferences happy, so they won't lose their credibility. Of the 5 ranked non-BCS teams, BYU is the only one playing a ranked BCS team. Utah is playing a crappy Cal team, and TCU is playing Boise St, of course. The other team? Central Michigan (ranked 25 in the AP poll) is playing Troy. It's especially suspicious because TCU played Boise last year, too, when both teams were in the top 15, but left out of the BCS. Utah was graciously given Bama, but I think the BCS learned from that mistake.

Well, that's it for my 3rd annual BCS Bashing. See you next year!