Polite Children, Fantasy Football, and Stocks

So Gabriel is officially polite. Pam and I have wanted to teach baby sign language to Gabriel for awhile now and have failed miserably. Not because Gabriel hasn't picked it up but because we just haven't spent any time teaching him. So we decided that we should start teaching him now. We have begun with the word "please". Apparently kids who sign "please" and "thank you" are a lot more likely to say them without prompting when they grow up. Anyway, we started making a big deal of it for an evening. We would say to each other, "Mommy may I have a drink please." rubbing our hand in a circular motion on our chest when we said please. Then any time Gabriel wanted something like more food or a drink or to read a book we would make him say please and showed him how to sign it. Sure enough by the end of the evening he had started doing it a little. But by the end of the next day he did it by himself without prompting. Now he does it all the time. He'll point to something, rub his chest, and say "pease" (no "l" of course). It is awesome! Pavlov would be so proud. Next we must teach him some nouns so he can tell us what he is asking for. We've found that he'll sign "please" and we have no idea what he wants. So we are working on drink and eat. I'm sure it won't be long and he'll get those too.

On another note, I have to tell everyone a little about fantasy football. I am a fantasy football fan. I believe that it would be good for all fans of the sport to be involved in a fantasy league. Here are my reasons. First, you start following the whole league a lot closer. While you still have a favorite team that you root for, you also start rooting for players and watching every game like its the super bowl. For instance, I have Wes Welker on my fantasy team this year. I don't care a hoot about his game at all. I did watch via the ESPN "Fantasy Cast" and was just excited as all get out as he gets one reception after another for over 130 yards and a touchdown. That equals 21 points for me. Or, tonight's Monday night football game is HUGE for me. I am in the first round of the playoffs as the 4th seed. I am playing the number 1 seed. He has only lost 3 games all year. I am ahead right now by 6 points. He has Carolina's Steve Smith and I have Tampa's Antonio Bryant. Now this game becomes SUPER important. If Steve Smith gets a 10 yard touchdown reception he gets 7 points. He would go ahead. If that happens, though, and Antonio Bryant gets a reception for 20 yards, I would still be ahead by a point. See how this goes? It is obviously of the utmost importance. Anyway, I am MUCH more knowledgeable about individual players than I ever have been, AND I know way more than I ever did about how each team is doing.

Oneseason.com is a new website that I am taking an interest in. You buy and sell stock in professional athletes. It uses real money. The value of a player goes up as people buy their stock and fall as people sell. Their popularity is a reflection of how people will buy and sell their stock. I don't know, it looks cool. I think I may partake one of these days.