Norah's First NFL Game, aka What the Frick Were We Thinking Taking a Four Month Old to an NFL Game?

BVZ says that he has three great loves of his life: me, Norah, and football. Before she was even born he talked about how fun it would be to take her to a game. Hell, Norah even has a 49'ers footed sleeper. When he arranged for the tickets back in May I figured Norah would be four and a half months old--plenty big enough for a football game. Clearly, I know nothing about babies.

Being the responsible parents we are, we got Norah ear protection for what obviously would be a very noisy game. Here she is modeling her ear phones.

Our good friends Isaac and Karyl drove down from Sonoma to join in the fun. At first it seemed as though the day would be perfect. It was a sunny 80 degrees at our house and we loaded up the car with both tailgating and baby crap. Although I didn't think she'd need it, at the last minute I threw Norah's sun hat into her bag. Now, the stadium is about 10 miles north of our house, and so the weather is usually a good 10 to 15 degrees cooler. Imagine my surprise to find that it was at least 112 degrees in the parking lot (okay, maybe an exaggeration, but it was really, really hot). We did okay at first, balancing stuffing our faces with guacamole and keeping Norah out of the sun.

Here are Karyl and Isaac:


BVZ and the littlest fan. Thank god I brought that hat!

Norah with Karyl:

It was so hot but I dared not take her outfit off of her because I had to keep her protected from the sun (no sun block for itty bitty babies).


The best part of the Prius is the hatch-back, so I just spread a blanket down and let her nap it off.

That's the end of the pictures because that's when it all went to hell. We got into the stadium where it was oppressively hot. We were all so uncomfortable, so I can only imagine how Norah felt. We got her ear phones on her when the fireworks started, and although she couldn't hear the cracking she could probably feel the vibrations. Plus, she couldn't hear us try and comfort her. We had an umbrella but it didn't seem to help create any shade for her. The ear phones, combined with the heat, and she just lost it. She cried, I cried, and 5 minutes into the game it became abundantly clear that this was the worst. idea. ever, and she and I high tailed it out of there.

We came home and drank lots of water and watched some 'America's Next Top Model'. By the third quarter BVZ, Isaac, and Karyl couldn't take the heat any more, so we went and picked them up.

This whole parenting thing is supposed to be hit and miss, right?