One Month In

Well it’s been four weeks of fatherhood and I’m still alive… more importantly so is The Jet.
You probably have many questions about what it’s like to be a parent. At this point, I don’t have much advice, but I can tell you a few things:
- For the entire time you are pregnant everyone will be telling you how much you life will change and how it will never be the same. It’s annoying, but they are not wrong, so just nod and smile.
- Do not make plans for how to raise the child outside of the big questions like religion. You will be forced to change them anyways.
- Let your friends and family help you in any way they can. Do not be too proud to assume you can do it all by yourself.
- Value sleep more than anything else, except the baby.
- Encourage communication and patience with your partner. Do not try to “out do” the other parent or “pass off” responsibilities.
- You will have a much shorter temper. Remember this so that you know when you’ll have to just take a deep breath.
- It’s always okay to let a crying baby cry, especially if you’ve already tried all you can to appease it.

So far, that is what The Jet has taught me. Honestly, I’m really looking forward to being able to interact with him more.

The first half of the baseball season is over and I’d have to say the biggest surprise is the Pirate; just 1 game out of first in the NL Central. Every division race is close and no one has really separated themselves from the pack as far as the individual races go. Here are my predictions for the rest of the season:
- NL Playoffs: Braves over Giants, Phillies over Cardinals, Phillies over Braves
- AL Playoffs: Red Sox over Angels, Rangers over Tigers, Rangers over Red Sox
- NL Awards: Prince Fielder (MVP), Cole Hamels (Cy Young)
- AL Awards: Adrian Gonzalez (MVP), Justin Verlander (Cy Young), Eric Hosmer (ROY)

A word about the US Women’s Soccer team and women’s sports in general:
Most average sports fans think very little of women’s sports. Their typical complaints are about a lack of athleticism, shallow talent pools leading to weak competition, and general sexism. Maybe it’s easy for me to enjoy something my country dominates at, but for someone who is a fan of losing teams, this helps. Look at how dominate American female athletes are in most sports; basketball, soccer, hockey, tennis, and track & field.
Watching that amazing comeback yesterday in Germany showed me that the American spirit is personified in our international athletes, and no one showed it better than those women on the soccer team. I cannot say how impressive it is to beat the FIFA #3 team in on PKs, after scoring in the final 30 seconds on a 25-yard, crossing pass for a header. Quite possibly the greatest game I’ve ever watched, and the referees made the degree of difficulty go through the roof.