Home For a Month and a Brewers Sweep!

I am in the midst of teaching two summer school classes, one on web design, and the other on fantasy baseball. Our dear friend Judy, who is the Director of Summer Programs at my school and who I've known since I was nine years old commented to me today about how since Hope and Grace's homecoming, the Brewers have been white hot. After doing a bit of research, I've realized that the Brewers record since the girls came home a month ago today is 16-9. That's pretty awesome if I do say so myself! My friend Jon's brother Bryon, who lives in Pittsburgh, recently created "The Sweep Broom" which he mailed to his brother Jon, who, in turn, passed the broom along to me. Since acquiring "The Sweep Broom," the Brewers have had two road sweeps. Much to the chagrin of my wife, here is a picture of me with "The Sweep Broom" amidst my bobble head collection in our basement.

I have often used the Brewers' season as a backdrop for many of the stories I share on this blog. In many ways I feel baseball mimics life. There are highs and lows, winning streaks and losing streaks, players get into slumps and then have hot streaks, pitchers will have awesome outings followed by less-stellar appearances, and good fans support their team and their favorite players no matter what. One thing I will not do is boo anyone on our team... does that possibly do the player any good?

This seems a lot like parenting if you ask me. Our girls have had their share of ups and downs, as many of you already know. The NICU experience was extremely hard. It is frustrating during the social season of summer to be more or less quarantined to keeping our girls in our house to decrease their risks of infections from being in public places or around a lot of people. However, when you think about their development in a big-picture context, our girls seem to be just as hot as the Brewers right now. Hope is now over the 7 pound threshold (weighing in at a beefy 7 pounds 2 ounces).... hmmm, 7 pounds, 7-game winning streak... coincidence??? Gracie Girl still is lean and mean, but growing at about an ounce a day, weighing in at 5 pounds 11.5 ounces. The home nurse who visited today was pleased with the girls' development. Gracie still has frequent spit ups, but these seem to be more of a concern to Dad than anyone else. When you think about it, in a little more than 3 months, Gracie and Hope have nearly tripled their weights!

Speaking of spit ups, Gracie shows her love for the newest Brewer starter, CC Sabathia, in a most unique way. I was fortunate enough to attend CC's first start as a Brewer and was given a CC t-shirt as a gift that evening. I have made a practice of wearing this shirt every time CC pitches since. Gracie, not to be outdone by her dad, has also made it her mission to make sure she spits up on the CC shirt every time Dad wears it. Last night I thought we were in the clear, as I watched the end of the game with Uncle Aaron and Uncle Mike at Mike's house. However, upon returning home, I fed Gracie a bottle, and burped her, and sure enough, she spit up on the CC shirt once again. Is this Gracie's way of showing her love for CC, or is she giving her dad a hard time? Only time will tell. For what it's worth, despite the spit ups and frequent washing of the Sabathia shirt, CC has gone 4-0 since becoming a Brewer, and has pitched 3 straight complete games.

Ultimately, what draws me in the most as a baseball fan is watching how the long season progresses and plays out. Regardless of whether or not the Brewers make it to the post-season is somewhat inconsequential. While I would love to see post-season ball as much, if not more so, than other fans, it is the joy of the game and the sheer drama and strategy of it all that makes me a regular at Miller Park and glued to the television set or radio on the other days. Each game is a progression of the Brewers as a team. Likewise, it is the joy of watching my girls develop over the past month that has really made me recognize what a true blessing it is to be a parent. Instead of a 162 game season, Hope and Grace's season will span a lifetime. Jeni and I are just so overjoyed to watch them grow along the way.