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I've got four kids. Three girls (13,10 and 5) and one boy (6). If I had been placing odds on such things in my twenties, doubt I would have come up with four as our final number (and it is final, comprende`?).
You know what I love most about my kids? The wonder in the most common, everyday experiences. Yesterday, our youngest had her 5th birthday party, and she got the usual assortment of five year-old little girl gifts: princess magic wand, fluffy slippers, giant stuffed animal dog, piggy bank, some sort of Strawberry Short Cake (I wanna say action-figures here, but am pretty sure that's not the correct terminology) play-things, etc.
I love watching her play. I love watching her brother play with his pickup trucks and bull dozers and GI Joe's and I love when he turns sticks outside into guns, and, well... I just love watching them play.
(Side note: not together, mind you. When they play together, very much a potential Cain/Abel thing)
The best movies I have ever seen at capturing this are the Toy Story movies. There is something about watching a child play with his or her toys and knowing, that in their mind at least, anything is possible. Anything.
I can't look at my life that way at work. It's hard to see things through a child's eyes at home even sometimes, particularly when dealing with the not as fun aspects of being a parent like discipline.
But football? Yeah, I think I can try that.
Let's face it, it's a kids game anyway. Take out the outrageous salaries, overpriced concessions and parking tickets and everything else that clouds our thinking as adults, and what do you have? A game.
I can see it in her eyes: "I know the last time I waved this magic wand, nothing happened. But this time will be different. I'm gonna turn my brother into a toad, I swear!"
I can see it in his eyes: "I know the last time I picked up this stick, nothing happened, but this time, I'm gonna shoot those aliens/ninja/Dr Octopus/bad guys around that corner!"
I can't always see it in my eyes. What am I thinking instead? "Shanahan screwed the pooch with McNabb, bungled the Fat Albert situation, and is proving to be no different from Zorn, Spurrier, Schotty, Norval, etc. This year is gunna suck."
But what I saw Friday night didn't suck. Sure it was just one game. And it was the preseason. And it is sure as hell easier not to let my guard down and get over-excited because for the past twent years, I have been inevitably disappointed.
But the Redskins looked good. Like a team. With youth. And I love what the Shanahan/Allen team has done this off season.
Could this time be different?
Let me go ask my kids.
But yeah, I think so.
You know what I love most about my kids? The wonder in the most common, everyday experiences. Yesterday, our youngest had her 5th birthday party, and she got the usual assortment of five year-old little girl gifts: princess magic wand, fluffy slippers, giant stuffed animal dog, piggy bank, some sort of Strawberry Short Cake (I wanna say action-figures here, but am pretty sure that's not the correct terminology) play-things, etc.
I love watching her play. I love watching her brother play with his pickup trucks and bull dozers and GI Joe's and I love when he turns sticks outside into guns, and, well... I just love watching them play.
(Side note: not together, mind you. When they play together, very much a potential Cain/Abel thing)
The best movies I have ever seen at capturing this are the Toy Story movies. There is something about watching a child play with his or her toys and knowing, that in their mind at least, anything is possible. Anything.
I can't look at my life that way at work. It's hard to see things through a child's eyes at home even sometimes, particularly when dealing with the not as fun aspects of being a parent like discipline.
But football? Yeah, I think I can try that.
Let's face it, it's a kids game anyway. Take out the outrageous salaries, overpriced concessions and parking tickets and everything else that clouds our thinking as adults, and what do you have? A game.
I can see it in her eyes: "I know the last time I waved this magic wand, nothing happened. But this time will be different. I'm gonna turn my brother into a toad, I swear!"
I can see it in his eyes: "I know the last time I picked up this stick, nothing happened, but this time, I'm gonna shoot those aliens/ninja/Dr Octopus/bad guys around that corner!"
I can't always see it in my eyes. What am I thinking instead? "Shanahan screwed the pooch with McNabb, bungled the Fat Albert situation, and is proving to be no different from Zorn, Spurrier, Schotty, Norval, etc. This year is gunna suck."
But what I saw Friday night didn't suck. Sure it was just one game. And it was the preseason. And it is sure as hell easier not to let my guard down and get over-excited because for the past twent years, I have been inevitably disappointed.
But the Redskins looked good. Like a team. With youth. And I love what the Shanahan/Allen team has done this off season.
Could this time be different?
Let me go ask my kids.
But yeah, I think so.