February 17: NAACP Image Awards, Battle of the Bottle, Prayer for a Quiet Night



Best Actor?  Really?

 I'm sitting here, watching the NAACP Image Awards right now.  Yes, I'm that much of an awards show junkie that I even watch this show.  It's not that I don't support the NAACP and people of color.  I do.  However, as entertainment awards shows go, it doesn't really ring my bell.  When one of the nominees for Best Actor in a Motion Picture is Eddie Murphy for Tower Heist, I know I'm not watching the Oscars.

Tonight, I'm fighting the battle of the bottle with my three-year-old son.  His teachers have been encouraging my wife and me to break him of his bottle addiction.  Something about dental problems and bottle mouth.  It sounds hideous.  So we bought him some Dora and Cars sippy cups.  It didn't work.  He still cried for close to an hour, making me feel like a prison warden.  If he cries like that tomorrow night, I'm sending him to Betty Ford.

My prayer tonight is for a quiet night, for my son to sleep through the night.  That is my prayer.  However, I'm pretty much a realist, and I know that about 2 a.m. he's going to wake up and call out, "Bottle of milk, please."  It will sound more like, "Bo-ul milll, peeez."  And then the real battle will begin, and it will feel more like World War III.

Saint Marty's not gettin' much sleep tonight.