Ok, I’ve created an album on Picasa called “Ona Favorites” where I’ll be uploading our favorite pictures of her. I won’t upload every single one taken, just ones that are cute or funny or whatever. I want to make it seem like I’m saving you the trouble of wading through tons of pictures, but really I’m just making sure you only think Ona is the super cute (which, ahem, she is).
Here is the linky: http://picasaweb.google.com/ericmuntz/OnaFavorites
Here is the picture that inspired this…
Last night I was trying to get Ona comfortable and sleeping. She seemed only comfortable on my chest, but that’s not the best sleep for me so I was up thinking random junk all night. I was thinking about the upcoming Turkey Day and all the “what I’m thankful for” discussions. I figured this year’s will be easy, I can just pick up Ona and hold her over the table, Simba style. So, to challenge myself, instead of thinking about what I am thankful for, I started thinking about what I’m looking forward to. Having a kid really gives me a lot to look forward to, but even aside from Ona doing stuff, there is a lot coming up very soon…
After thinking about that stuff, I started thinking about everything Ona will be doing in the next year. I don’t really know what milestones go with what ages, because I avoid parenting books like the plague, but I’d imagine in the next year she’ll be rolling over, laughing (she’s close now), crawling, maybe walking and hell, maybe saying a word or two (or making a sound and us pretending it was a word, either way works). It’ll be cool to see all of that unfold and to start to see her have a personality. That’ll be wicked cool. Of course, I started thinking about all the things I’ll be seeing and envisioned her running around playing games, riding bikes, building things, going crazy.
The one image that stood out that I just can’t wait to see is Ona being proud of herself. I think that’ll be one of the happiest moments for me. So many different emotions will come into play – from being happy for her, proud of us for helping her get to that point, and on and on, all boiled up in one seemingly tiny event. That’s what I’m looking forward to now.
Ona got some college football love through baby osmosis this weekend, and even though the Auburn Tigers weren’t playing an important game she got to see her Dad act like a retard. I watched all or parts of three games while hanging with the baby girl, and two of them had me surprisingly emotional.
The first was Navy vs. Notre Dame. I actually have always liked ND, I guess it’s because they were awesome and fun when I was growing up and learning to like college football. So, unlike a lot of the haters, I haven’t been on the “screw ND” bandwagon, until this weekend. I have love for Navy, since Scuba Steve went to school there and took us on a really fun tour four or five years ago, and how can you not root for a team who has lost 43 straight matchups (unless it’s Bama… only 38 more to go). I went into the game thinking “this will be relatively fun, I hope Navy hangs tight” and five minutes in I was totally 100% hating ND and loving Navy. I don’t know what happened, but I cheered for Navy in that game as hard as I’ve ever cheered a team before. All of a sudden, ND was vile scum, and I was fully on the hater wagon. Makes for a much more enjoyable experience, especially when that arrogant prick coach at ND refuses to ever punt or kick a field goal and their QB is met with the leaping sack of death to end regulation. What a play. Truly awesome. Now, I’ve heard a lot of hating for Weiss before and never really understood it, but that game made me a super hater. Never punting, you arrogant prick? Take THAT. After it ended and we got to watch Navy’s coach very goofily run around like an uncoordinated 8 year-old, Weiss was asked “what went wrong” and brilliantly stated “they scored two more points than us”. 6 more years on that contract, ND.
Next up was LSU vs. Bama. Another recent super hatred for me is Bama. Not that I ever liked them, but they weren’t the team I needed to beat every year, even though they are Auburn’s huge rival (sorry, Dan and Troy, but Georgia has always been the team I needed us to beat). However, with the addition of O’Saban Bin Lyin (as Dan Lebatard calls him), Bama is the team I hate the most. I mean, I hate them. [shakes fists]. So, again, watching those bastards lose to LSU was great. It was really tight and LSU made the kind of mistakes that typically lose games, but Bama proved to suck more, and golden boy QB coughed up a big one deep in their own territory. That got a scream that scared the poo out of Ona (not literally, thankfully). Lots of screaming and shouting from my couch, even though I had to take an Ona break and go for a walk during the middle portions. That’s two games I’ve watched Bama lose in dramatic fashion (other was vs. Georgia) and both times my exuberance has solidified how important Iron Bowl is to me this year.
Finally, I tried to watch Arizona State vs. Oregon. Yeah, PAC-10 (aka “Whack 10″) action. I got through about the first quarter before the colors of Oregon’s uniforms made me feel epileptic and pukey and I had to turn it off. Those uni’s should cost their QB the heisman. Seriously, why would a team ever want to look like really ugly highlighters? WHY?!? It’s brutal.