February Highlights: Little Man's Basketball

     Little Man is playing basketball this year and it has been a lot of fun to watch him.   The program he's playing basketball with is really organized and a lot of fun.  They have music playing before the games and during half time and there are even little cheerleaders who practice cheers and perform them at half time.  

      I would say Mike's favorite things about Little Man and basketball are watching his son play his favorite sport, watching Little Man improve, and giving him all sorts of helpful Dad coaching tips like looking up when he's dribbling and passing the ball (the league consists of first and second graders and passing is a last resort to them, everyone just wants to shoot).

     My favorite things are when they announce all the players names at the beginning of the game and they get to run through a tunnel of cheerleaders.  He always runs though as fast as he can with a huge smile plastered on his face and then jumps up and down and dances to the music as the rest of his team members are called.  I love watching his excitement and it's been really fun to see how much he's improved since the beginning of the season.  At the end of the season, the coach hoists everybody who hasn't scored a basket that season up on their shoulders so they can get a chance to make a bucket.  After the first game, Mike and I were sure Little Man would end up being one of those kids.  He surprised us though and made a basket the third game (where I, in my excitement, yelled so loudly that more than one person turned to stare at me) and has actually scored at least once every game since.  

    I think Little Man's favorite thing is everything.   He would play all game, every game if they would let him.  He is one of the smallest and youngest players on the team, but it doesn't bother him.  Apparently, he was talking to one of the other boys about how they wished they could play the whole game and the other boy said to Little Man, "You can't play the whole game, you're too little," to which Little Man replied, "I may be little, but I'm really good at basketball!"  I love the confidence that little kids have and the enthusiasm and energy that our little boy brings to everything that he does.  

 Little Man scoring his first basket!  One of the other moms captured this and was nice enough to share.