March Madness, Year-Round

In honor of March Madness, I'll take a break from the (gradual) holiday catch-up to talk about basketball mania at our house. Obviously they've been exposed to the sport living in our house, but I wouldn't say we've pushed it on them. Nevertheless, they've both developed what can only be described as a passion for it. And it's started early--you may remember that Myla had a basketball theme for her 2nd birthday party, and at the same age Luke seems to be developing the love.

Last year I took Myla to a couple of the ND women's basketball games, and she really had fun, so this year we bought season tickets. She has to be one of their biggest fans (or at least have one of the highest enthusiasm-to-age ratios). Her favorite player is Natalie Novosel, and she loves to get dressed up for the games and cheer them on like crazy. During the introductions, she gets so worked up I'm afraid she's going to pass out. And all through the game, she'll yell "Defense," "Go Irish Go," or even "Boo Huskies!" at exactly the right moments.

Here she is before the UK-ND women's game in December, the only game for which her loyalties were divided:


Luke got Myla a regulation-sized basketball (but in pink and purple) for Christmas, and it's one of her favorite possessions:



Given her enthusiasm, we decided to sign her up for Pee Wee Basketball with South Bend Parks & Rec. Imagine eight 3- or 4-year olds trying to dribble, shoot, pass, and even play one-on-one. It's chaos, but lots of fun for the kids. And to my surprise, Myla's skills have improved so much in just six weeks. At the start, she couldn't dribble the ball three times in a row. But she practiced and practiced at home (on her own, without us telling her to), and now she can dribble with both hands. I've counted her at over 20 times without losing the ball. She has also gone from not being able to do anything that even resembled shooting, to above 50% field goal percentage on our Little Tikes goal. It's great to watch her practice something and see it pay off.

Luke loves the round ball as well. In fact, their biggest disagreements are fights over the basketball, and what height the Little Tykes rim should be.

Finally, here are some more basketball-related anecdotes:

* Pop came for a visit and took Myla to a game. Afterwards, Nana was asking her about what happened, and Myla shook her head and said "Too many turnovers."

* Luke probably says a dozen words reliably and understandably (though he'll repeat or occasionally say lots of others). But one of the first is his version of "ba-ball" for basketball. And I swear his first two-word phrase was "bounce pass" (we'd been working on it with Myla).

* Myla sees John Calipari on TV and says "Coach Cal! He's the best coach." She even said he's better than Muffett (the ND women's coach), and that's something coming from her.