Life Lessons from Boys: The Sound of Basketball

Basketballs bouncing, Whistles blowing, Horns buzzing, Coaches directing, Parents yelling...

This is the type of music that plays in my head on a daily basis. This is the type of music my baby heard during the entire 37.5 weeks he was in my belly. This is why he doesn't flinch when we sit next to the scoreboard and the horn sounds. This is why he isn't bothered by a continuous stream of bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce. This is why, out of all of his toys, he picks up the basketballs first, at just 8 months old. He will be a gym rat, I can tell. He already plays in the bleachers quite comfortably.

He will follow his daddy & brother everywhere. He will probably run out on the court (when I turn my head for like 1 millisecond) chasing TJ during the middle of the game just like his daddy did when he was little, stopping play and causing me to turn beat red & curse, which most of you know if very unlike me. So serious. This is why I will have an eternal hatred towards bleachers for the lifelong back pain I will develop.

This is why I love that I had a boy.

Because, I love to watch my husband play basketball. Because I love to watch him coach & teach the little kids. It makes him so happy & that makes me happy.

This was taken in Memphis last July at AAU Nationals.

AND, I love the competitiveness of the sport.

Oh yeah, I will also love it when this little guy hits a good growth spurt...

TJ is playing with the NC Gaters again this season on the 9U team. They played a tournament this past weekend in Dobson (outside of Mt Airy) and won the entire thing with a 4-0 record. They were far better than their competition, holding one poor team scoreless, while even rotating in the less experienced players. It is still good for them to participate in these small tournaments because it gives them the opportunity to play together as a team in a real game and it allows them to make mistakes & learn from them, while not costing them the game.

As for TJ, his skills have become far more superior than they were last season, at least for an 8 year old. Part of this is just having 1 AAU season under his belt. He is learning to play the point position without being totally selfish, as most 8 year olds do. Don't get me wrong, he doesn't always pass the ball when he has an open look like he should but he is actually starting to look down court and pass more often. He is also playing more aggressive on defense which resulted in quite a few steals this weekend and his free throws are unbelievably consistent. I mean don't touch the rim, net whiplash consistent. And he is doing better dribbling through traffic and getting to the bucket. He just needs to GROW!! I have some video footage that I would like to piece together but we'll see when I actually have time to do that.

Does this make sense that I was supposed to have a boy? You know, my jargon in the above paragraph, I mean. Congrats to all of my girlfriends (which is like 99.9% of you) that actually read this part. At least my dad will probably enjoy it though, lol!

Anyway, the tournament was two days, all day long & Deuce was pretty content playing in his spot on the bleachers.

And as I have mentioned before, you can see in the next series of shots the ungodly amount of drool the child is producing...

Hence the need to have multiple burp cloths on hand and mini rashes on the neck & chest. I try to keep a bib on him a lot but it's not really that fashionable. Seriously.

Watching so much basketball makes him hungry and I swear if TJ doesn't grow soon, Deuce is going to be bigger than him in no time. The other day, TJ went to pick him up and almost fell over. Honest to God. He is half of TJ's length and probably half of his weight. I need to video him getting a bottle because he goes ballistic as soon as he sees it and rips it out of your hands to stuff it in his mouth. HILARIOUS!