I obviously have nothing tangible to base it on, but my gut tells me she’ll be early.

And in preparation for that, you can see the lovely gifts I bought her last week to help get her ready for cheering the Phoenix Suns on during the season. The onesie may not be worn for too long, but the pacifier and bow could be used for awhile.

Don’t make fun of the bow…it’s pretty gigantic, but I like it

Here’s another onesie I was thinking of getting her, but I’ll probably hold off.

I have a feeling this little girl could have a lot of cute Suns stuff. There were some awesome overalls that she’ll definitely be getting around 6-12 months. Maybe 12 months, since that will be around the start of next season.

So the closer the day comes for Lyla to arrive (whenever that is), the more surreal it all starts to feel to me. I was writing an email to my fantasy football league the other day, showing them that onesie I linked to above, and I almost wrote something to the effect of “Once my daughter arrives, I was thinking of getting her this…”

The word daughter just stuck with me. All the new names for things coming up has me kind of out of sorts. Father…Dad…Daughter…Mom…Child. Just the idea of saying “my daughter” was so strange and foreign to me, I changed the sentence to read something else. I wasn’t ready to say it yet for some reason, but I think it’s just because I want to wait until I get to see her in a few weeks.

It’s like nothing can prepare you for the first time you get to say that. I’ve been alive 33 years, been married for 10, and yet there is something so awesome and new about to happen that words can’t describe it.

We have an ultrasound on Tuesday afternoon that will mostly confirm that she’s turned upside down and isn’t breach anymore. That was months ago that someone said she was breach, and we’re pretty sure she’s looking good right now. Not to mention still moving like a crazy person.

We’re close to finishing the baby’s room. I hung the shelves this weekend and that means we have just a few tiny things to do. The big thing right now is to get our little “hospital bags” ready for when labor begins. We need to be packed, and my big worry is making sure one of them has a fully charged camera. But I’m sure I’ll be able to charge them at the hospital.

The downside of the place we’re going to have the baby at is no wireless internet yet. I really want to have the first photo of the baby up real quick for people to see, but we wont be able to right away. Although…I may send it as a photo from my phone to your cell phone.

I also would do a mobile photo upload to Facebook, but sadly Alltel isn’t set up for that like Verizon was, so I’m sort of annoyed with all that.

We got the base for the carseat put in Jina’s car last weekend by the fire department, so we’re all ready there.

That’s all for right now…we’ll post some ultrasound photos on Tuesday night hopefully if we get some good oens.

Tonight marks the season opener for the Phoenix Suns (and little Leandro Barbosa, pictured above), the team I’ve followed my entire life as an Arizona native.

Most people know I’m an avid Suns fan and love the game of basketball in general. But not everyone really knows why this sport is such a passion for me.

It probably all started with my dad, who took me and my brother to Suns games when we were just kids. I remember some of the old players, like Larry Nance and Alvin Adams. That’s how long ago we started watching this team.

Those are memories stuck in my head. I can still see people throwing tortilla shells around the Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum back when the Suns played the Lakers in the late 80′s playoff run. My room was decked out with Suns newspaper clipping the year they went to the Finals (1993). I went to the parade that same year when the town celebrated them even though they didn’t win.

So I had that childhood basis for loving the sport. Then I went to high school and wanted to play on the team, but I was awful. I remember trying out for the team as a freshmen and pulling off this goofy hook shot that hit the lights up in the ceiling of the gym.

That still embarrasses me to think about it. Needless to say, I didn’t make the team. Not even the freshman team!

From that point on, I started playing down at the elementary school every afternoon with other high school kids from the neighborhood.  Every single day we were there. The hoops were 8-feet tall, so we all learned to dunk the ball, which helped develop a pretty decent ability to jump in my tiny, 5-foot-10 white frame.

By the time I was a junior, my best friend Sam, who was on the varsity team, told me I should be starting for them. I was shocked. I guess I hadn’t realized how much I had improved.

But it was a private school and I had made the choice to go there and help pay for it by doing work study in the afternoons. So practicing was out of the question. I couldn’t do it. I did travel with the team and took stats, being the “manager” in a way, which seemed very humiliating at times.

Yet it never bothered me as much as you might think. True, one of my bigger regrets as a kid was never playing on my high school team. I think it would be been an amazing experience for me.

But basketball was more than just that for me. It was a sport that allowed you to go outside and play by yourself whenever you wanted. You can’t really say that about football, baseball, etc. All you need is a ball and a hoop. You can play against yourself to get better and better at making shots or dribbling the ball.

Mostly though, it was an escape for me. If my life ever got hectic or too much to deal with, or I had just broken up with a girl (or trying to impress the girl playing bball next door), I’d spend hours out in front of my house shooting hoops.

I’m not an awesome player, but I can hold my own and it’s something I’ve been proud of for a long time. In fact, it’s the only…the SINGLE thing I am scared of when I grow old: Not being able to play anymore.

Even now, if I haven’t picked up a ball in six months or longer, I can always get back into shape quickly and be the same old player I’ve always been (minus a bit of speed these days).

But that wont always be the case.

In the meantime, I try to play when I can and watch every Suns game. It’s not just “sports” to me…it’s a lot more than that.

And I hope to pass on the same love of the game to Lyla someday. Who knows, maybe she’ll want to play hoops in high school like her old man never got a chance to do.

I love Marion, and while he’s been a bit up and down here in terms of mood and his attitude, I don’t know if I like this deal at all.

Of course, if it wins us a championship, then whatever it takes!

What will I do with my Marion bobblehead though?