A Boy and His Hoop

My son loves sports.

Loves is actually an understatement. He is obsessed with sports. This was destined to happen. I had no say in the matter. And it all began in the hospital the day he was born. While I took a much needed nap, Adam and his little G watched an OU baseball game. But that's not the only sports little G got that day. The record breaking tennis match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut ended on the day Graham was born. It was the longest match in tennis history lasting more than 11 hours over the course of three days.

See, he was destined to love sports. And love them he does. With passion and zeal and vigor.

Since he's been seeing a lot of basketball lately with March Madness just wrapping up, G has been wanting to play a lot of "shoot." This game entails one of the parents (usually Dad) standing on his knees with his arms out to create the hoop while Graham shoots, dunks, and airballs to his heart's content. If the "hoop" gets tired and sits down, moves to the couch, etc., our bossy little boy says, "no, no, no" while pointing to the floor where the "hoop" must resume his/her position. Mom gets tired of this game much faster than Dad does, mainly because G's choice in balls is not always soft and Mom's "backboard" is a little more delicate. Plus, little sister doesn't like it when the ball hits her.

The game of "shoot" gets more tricky when we go outside. Our backyard came with a basketball goal that G is totally enthralled with. Gone are the days when he would wander around the yard picking up sticks and playing a game of chase with the puppy next door. Now, he just makes a bee-line for the hoop and tries his best to throw his ball high enough. When that doesn't work very well, he enlists a parent to hold him up so he can shoot. Lifting a 20+ pound kid above your head when you are seven months pregnant is not easy. Or recommended. It doesn't help that he likes to use your chest as a springboard to reach even higher. Really fun for the little boy; really unpleasant for the Mom.

We had decided to get the G-man a basketball goal that is his size. We desperately wanted to wait until his birthday, but we folded and got it for Easter. G doesn't really know about Easter baskets or presents, but we knew he would be thrilled.

And thrilled he was.

Beyond thrilled.

He woke up at 7:15 and we brought him into the living room to see his surprise. When he saw the hoop he was giddy and knew exactly what to do. We had a meltdown when it was time to eat breakfast. We had a meltdown when it was time to get dressed for church. We had a meltdown when we had to leave the house. For two hours straight, he did nothing but "shoot." When we pulled into the garage from church, G started talking about his "new hoop." Hoping to avoid yet another meltdown, we put him immediately into his highchair and bypassed even looking at the hoop. After just a couple bites he handed me his plate and said, "Done. Shoot. New hoop." He shot around for another hour until naptime.

Cue meltdown.

G has started talking in his bed for a while before he falls asleep. As he lay there in the dark, we heard him saying, "Ah meese (ah miss)," over and over.

We put the hoop away during naptime since we knew it might make heading to our friend's house for Easter dinner a challenge. Not surprisingly, Graham searched the house for the "new hoop" as soon as he woke up. Thankfully going to his buddy Jordan's house was exciting enough to get him in the car without any tears.

He asked about the hoop when he woke up this morning and looked everywhere for it, but I wanted him to actually eat, so we waited until after breakfast to bring it out of hiding. Suffice it to say, G was happy to see his hoop again.

I was kind of nervous about how day number two would go since we had three hoop related meltdowns before 10am on day number one, but G seems to have reached some balance with his basketball goal. Don't get me wrong, he's played "shoot" for a majority of the day, but he did take a 20 minute break to play in his room. He sat in my lap to read several books before he took a nap and hasn't had any hoop related meltdowns so far.

Yay for Mom and Dad picking out the perfect toy! It so much fun to see the joy on your kid's face when you give him a gift that you know he'll love. And as much as we wanted to wait until his birthday, hearing him say, "ah meese" or "bick (brick)" when he misses a shot, or "dunk" and "nice shot" when he makes one has been totally worth it. Plus, he's getting a little sister for his birthday. That's the present every little boy wants, right?