matt weighs in

We have been knee-deep in March Madness here, with the NCAA men’s basketball tournament getting underway this past weekend. At the same time, we were preparing for Elliot’s 2nd birthday, which was on Saturday, March 21st. We recorded a new Podcast Named Pig on Sunday after all the festivities were over, and we had a chance to catch our breath. We had a great time with our friends and family at two different parties, and Elliot and Siena are absolutely exhausted from all the activity and excitement.

We kept the podcast fairly short – an interview with Siena to get her thoughts about basketball and tried to get Elliot to talk about one of his favorite gifts he received. There were some other things I wanted to get into, but in order to cut down on time, we didn’t discuss, so I am going to put them here, in my cozy little section of our website.

I wanted to talk about the basketball tournament but not only the games, which are great, but how I need to balance watching so many games over the course of four days with spending time with the family, especially leading up to one of my child’s birthday parties, when there is so much preparation needed to be done. You would have to ask Laura and the kids if I succeeded in keeping this balance, but I know that even when I was helping with the party, my mind wasn’t always fully in the moment, as I found myself wondering if I was missing anything exciting.

I was up early on both Thursday and Friday morning so I could go to work. I was out the door before anyone else in the house was stirring, which is hard to do with our old wood floors. Normally, I leave when the kids are eating breakfast or have just sat down to watch their first cartoon on PBS Kids.

I worked both days and then raced home to catch the last few games of the afternoon session and help with party stuff. I was up until about midnight both nights. Saturday is kind of a blur right now, as we had another birthday party in the morning, before putting the finishing touches on Elliot’s party while the kids napped. We were both beat on Saturday night, but I kept one eye on the tv as I tried not to fall asleep and miss a great game.

The whole time on Thursday and Friday, I was totally conscious of trying to balance being a parent and meet those obligations while watching the games. I sat down for our family dinners, but I have to admit that I made it quicker than usual. I played with the kids, but mostly in the basement where the tv is. Laura was busy making cake and cupcakes, so Siena and Elliot wanted to be by her side, and I wasn’t always good at keeping their attention, as my attention was intently on the games. We played basketball with our little hoop, dribbling a basketball, while watching basketball. I guess one good thing is that I was trying to teach them about something I love, but because they don’t share my love (yet), it probably appeared I was doing it half-hearted. I can’t disagree and neither would Laura, I bet.

Probably the worst was when I grumbled, albeit briefly, about having to go to the store at about 9:30pm for more frosting. This makes no sense, but I was more mad at having to change pants and put shoes on than actually having to go, but I’m glad I didn’t fight it, because it definitely would have been unfair to Laura. I’m happy with how Elliot’s parties turned out and how I helped, but Laura deserves a huge trophy. I am promising her that her March madness ended this weekend.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SIENA! I think my next birthday will be celebrated for four days, too (although, maybe it should be 32 days for 32 years?). Note for when you’re older and reading this: I hope you chose to eat at Pepito’s again this year. How your mama and I love us some margaritas! Also, I’m sorry I couldn’t keep Norah Jones fish alive for a full one year. 361 days isn’t bad, though.

Let’s just move on. Of course Brett Favre is thinking about retiring from retirement. The 2nd paragraph on the 2nd page of Peter King’s article made me throw up a little bit in my mouth.

I think everyone saw this coming back in March about 3 minutes after he announced he was retiring. I don’t know why he decided to retire this year anyway – team just missed the Super Bowl (thanks to Favre), he had a great year and the team is still young and would be factors in the 2008 season. It didn’t make sense for him to step away now, and my guess is that he realized it too late.

If he does come back, I don’t think Packer fans will be mad or sick of him. They might feel bad for Aaron Rodgers for a minute, but the team, already close to the Super Bowl, would be better. Why be angry at that? Anger should set in if he ends up playing for another team, either by trade or if the Packers decide to release him. Right now, I don’t believe I could root for him as a Viking. Favre in a purple uniform? If it happens and the Vikings go to the Super Bowl with him at QB, I would cheer for Favre throwing three interceptions and fumbling twice, but hope for the Minnesota defense to score three TDs and the team win 21-17…or something like that.

I hope it’s not like that.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HON! It’’s not too often that I brag about things, but what we’ve accomplished the last few years is pretty damn cool. The rugrats at our feet are the best, and I love watching you with them, even when we have to curse under our breaths a little bit now and then.

I love you and am jealous you have another year in your 20s. Let’s make it great.

Laura posted a picture today showing milk in a Grolsch pitcher. We took a morning trip to Target on Saturday. I was rushing to bring groceries into the house, so I could run to work for a few minutes to pick something up and then head with the kids to my brother’s house to hang with family. Key word is “rushing.”

I brought two gallons of milk into the house, one in each hand. I handed them to Laura in the entryway and turned back, really not even checking that she had them. Apparently not.

I was already out the door when there was a shriek from the house. One gallon of milk burst on the hardwood floor. Milk everywhere. Shoes, rugs and kids thrown out of the way.

The beer pitcher is what was left of the carnage. Luckily, it wasn’t the organic whole milk costing $6 that burst. But don’t try using this fact on Laura. We lost her at “rushing.”

I’ve been reading TrueHoop every day as the NBA regular season came to a close and the playoffs continue. Even though I don’t read all the links to what they post – I don’t need to know now who columnists think Miami should draft with their 1st round pick this summer – I like that they mix it up with on-the-court analysis and off-the-court team info (and other basketball stuff, such as this. Look closely at his “My Stats” page).

I’m really hoping for a NBA Finals throwback series – Celtics & Lakers. Since I believe (and try to prove on Sundays) that I can play basketball like I could when I was a kid, I want a series that can take me back to those days, too. If the Celtics don’t lay the hammer down in game 1 of their current series against Cleveland, then my hope will likely fade right along with Kevin Garnett’s NBA legacy – promising throughout, but without a strong finish.

Let’s hope this isn’t the case. I really want KG to lead them to the top.

On Tuesday, Laura posted a story about having to make a snap parenting decision regarding discipline, after Siena went all Mike Tyson on her at dance class (luckily, no biting was involved). Thanks to those of you who e-mailed or wrote comments with your thoughts of support, encouragement and/or “stick to your guns.” Although we have implemented some of the Supernanny methods (I never thought we would stop seeing Siena in our bed at 1:30am), our only real reference points are our own instincts, how we were raised and what we hear from or discuss with others.

There are great parents out there, some really horrible parents out there, and then the rest of us who sorta get along day-by-day, decision-by-decision. We hope we’re getting closer to being great parents than sliding the other way. Most days, I think we get by just fine with only minor struggles such as when, what and how much snack to have. Other days come with closed fists.

What the hell is that? I don’t hit Laura or the wall or anything else in the house (I usually don’t even fluff my pillows), so it makes you wonder why she thinks that it’s ok to go around slugging us. We know she has lungs, so why can’t her displeasure just come with a loud, “Noooooooooo,” or something like that? Is it too soon for her to understand that Laura bruises like a peach? Imagine that conversation:

“Siena, don’t hit mama, she bruises like a peach.”

“Mama’s eating a peach? Is peach a fruit?”

Yes, it’s a fruit, but no, she bruises like a peach. Like, she gets an owie if you do that.”

“Mama has an owie?”

“Ugggh.”

In this instance, I would have handled it pretty much the same as Laura, which is good, as it’s important to be on the same page for major parenting things such as discipline. Siena now knows that the threat of leaving somewhere fun or not going somewhere fun is there if she misbehaves. I believe that next time we’ll have to follow through with our threat, so as not to set the precedent that we’re not serious (as some of you suggested using good examples).

We also enforced some other consequences for how she behaved before dance class. So, she (maybe) has the memory of almost leaving dance and how that felt, plus she has other consequences to serve over the next few days as reminders of what happened.

I need her to remember this, for I can’t be leaning in to give Laura a hug and have her pulling away due to bruised arms. Imagine how that would look in public.

Okay, I’m back at it. You can stop holding your breath in anticipation now. I hope you have noticed some additions in the sidebar of the main page – Twitter (or tweets), which we love and force ourselves not to update every hour and our Flickr pictures, which we have to do better to update more often. We can even send our tweets by text message, which we did Friday night from Chino Latino in Uptown. You’ve been warned. I’m working on a few other things that may or may not screw up the sight if I mess them up, but I’ll try to keep that to a minimum, or at least contact my friend Dave, who’s recently been experiencing some updating pains. That’s the joy of the interweb.

A few thoughts on a Sunday night to catch up:

1. We could get some closure to the Democratic race on Tuesday. Most polls show Hillary with only a slight edge in Pennsylvania (down from earlier in the month), but nowhere near significant enough to make up much ground in delegates. I didn’t see the most recent debate last week, but most accounts were fairly disgusted with ABC’s lines of questioning. Two different recaps are here and here. I have thoughts on what Obama said at the private fundraiser in San Francisco a couple weeks ago, but he looks to have weathered the ridiculous reactions to it (hint as to how I feel about those reactions).

2. The NCAA basketball tournament was exciting as advertised. I have to admit that I fully jumped on the Davidson bandwagon after they disposed of Georgetown, who, most unfortunately, was my pick to win the whole damn thing. I had G’town in my pool with Laura’s family, who mostly live on the West Coast and had a predictably strong UCLA bias. Congrats to those in Missouri who were biased to Kansas, and, therefore, came out on top in the pool.

3. The NBA playoffs have started, and they are living up to their billing, as expected. I watched about 52 of the 58 minutes in Game 1 between San Antonio and Phoenix. The Suns were ahead most of the game and should have won, but were in foul trouble when it mattered – I’m not a big fan of refs and usually tell whoever will listen that I know I could do better in stripes.

The game was almost unwatchable for two reasons: every ref call was followed by players whining about it (this grows tiresome) and THE PA ANNOUNCER AND THE MUSIC WERE SO LOUD THROUGHOUT THE GAME THAT I ALMOST TURNED DOWN THE SOUND ON THE TV (bet you want to stop reading after I just screamed at you for five seconds). They do this at MN Timberwolves games, too. Music plays while the game is going on, and the game announcer thinks it’s his job to get the crowd going. The game should be exciting enough to keep the fans in it. This was evident during last year’s playoff games between Golden State and Dallas. GS’s crowd was so amped that they drowned out the music. I can’t imagine the next time that might happen at Target Center.

4. Elliot is walking. I can’t tell you the non-stop joy this is to watch him keep his balance on grass, dirt and sand. It’s great comedy, and I may start taking bets with people as to whether or not he can stay on his feet for more than five seconds on different terrain. I would take the over every time.

5. I miss Johan.

6. I watched three of the six MN Wild games and listened to two others on the radio. They only led for about four minutes in the six games played (about 380 minutes total), but with my limited hockey knowledge, they controlled play for most of the series. They ran into a Colorado Avalanche team whose goalie won the series for them (you can’t overlook their overall defense, though). I think the Wild were done in by a team that played their game better than they did in the series. The Wild are coached to be defensive minded first and take advantage of opportunities to score when the opponents give it to them. This series they lost, they were the aggressive team the majority of the time, and Colorado scored when they had the chance. Only one goalie was MVP in this series.

‘Tis the season of hiding Christmas presents. Laura went shopping Wednesday night. I’m pretty sure it was for me, as earlier she had told me she was going shopping with her friend, and I could not go. She didn’t really have to tell me I couldn’t go shopping, because usually she mentions shopping, and I say, “See you later!” hoping that it’s a trip that can go on without me – I buy, I don’t shop.

I get a call later in the night saying that I need to let her in the front door, but I have to race right back upstairs and I can’t look at her. No complaints from me, as this means her trip is only good news for me. She needs to hide my present(s?).

Both kids have been asleep for 2 hours, so their closets cannot be hiding spots. The basement is still 2-3 days from being done…she’ll barely go down there as it is right now. So where to hide the present(s?).

Siena found the bag about 2 minutes after we had been awake on Thursday morning, and I have to admit, I probably would not have seen them without her. You see, Siena has this obsession with turning the small corner area between our big puffy chair and the low puffy couch in our living room into her own personal storage space.At any time, this area could be where she stages her zoo shows, therefore has about 17 stuffed animals getting ready for their performance. Other times, it is turned into a fort. Siena’s forts don’t just have 2 objects as walls with a blanket over the top. One time, she had the chair and couch, of course, and then to make it secure, for a roof, she had 2 bigger blankets, 1 smaller blanket, a burp cloth covering her Cranium Hullabaloo game, a long line of wooden elephants, her kitty grooming kit, a little pink bug of some kind, another bigger box of toys and 2 gates, which are a whicker top to one of her toy baskets and a dining room chair.

So, I don’t pay too much attention when this area has stuff. Siena, however, had radar, knew something was wrong in her corner and went right for it. I heard a bag crinkle, looked, and there in the corner were the results of the previous night’s shopping trip.

Siena had pulled the tray for Elliot’s highchair off the top of the bag in the corner. Laura’s fort for my present had a pillow on one side, the highchair tray on top and the cover for Elliot’s car seat on top of that as extra security and camouflage. I swear I didn’t look at what was inside, but I did have to control Siena from opening it up.

Makes my keeping Laura’s present in the trunk of her car for 2 days seem genius. I didn’t have to worry about anyone finding it. Of course, Siena told her about it as soon as they were alone.