Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Are you ready for some football?

On Saturday, we took Harmon to his first Michigan football game. Our plan was to do it for the Minnesota game last year but it rained so we had to postpone the big event until this year. While we have four season tickets in our name, we figured it would be awhile until the four of us (Simon included) could enjoy a game together so we gave away two of them. The problem THIS year, though, is that there are three of us and only two tickets (and, yes, ALL people must be accounted for no matter how young). So, I decided to take Harmon in with me first and then Kevin joined us after kickoff when a nice, older couple gave him a free ticket they weren’t using.

Kevin dropped us off on East Stadium Boulevard, near the entrance to Crisler Arena so we only had a short walk to our section. On that walk, though, Harmon LOVED seeing all the police cars and all the construction. We got inside just in time for the band to take the field and, although he was scared by the noise at first, he quickly joined in and sang “The Victors” with everyone else in the stadium. It was so sweet to seeing him “hailing” with his little right arm – that’s my boy! We are huge fans of Coach Rod so it’s not uncommon for Harmon to see him on TV or on the computer, not to mention the fact that we met him a few weeks ago. So, on Saturday, he was all fired up to see Coach Rod! When he led the team out of the tunnel I tried to point him out but Harmon simply liked seeing all the little maize and blue winged helmets bobbing up and down like bumblebees! At kickoff, people hold up their hats and twirl them around and Harmon decided to join in this tradition too. After watching each team’s opening drive (ours included a TD), we went to the concession stand to get some lunch. Harmon got a hot dog and a bottled water and was a hit with everyone he saw (I’m sure the name and the block M hat helped). We got back to our seats just in time for Kevin to arrive and then we all got to enjoy the rest of the half together.

At halftime, Harmon burned off lots of boy energy running around near the entrance gates and Kevin ate a late lunch. Our goal going in was through AT LEAST the first half of the game with Harmon – and we had achieved that – so we decided to get greedy and try for more. We ended up making it to the fourth quarter but it got a little rough. Harmon got bored and it got warmer and he drank a ton of water and, thus, had to go potty 100,000 times so we finally called it a day. On our way out, we got some cute pictures and, overall, I think it went well – Harmon was pretty well behaved and we all had fun. We might try another game later in the year just so he starts to love Michigan football just as much as Kevin and I do!