On the Rebound

March Madness may be behind us...


(wow, is anyone else a little shocked that it's April already?!)



but basketball is still the number one game in our house.

(Luke with a bad case of The March Madness!)

A couple of months ago I found a little basketball hoop in a clearance section for super cheap. It was right after Luke started walking and I thought it would be a great way to get both of the kids involved in an active, physical game that we could also play inside. We were all infected with "cabin fever" - sick of being stuck inside but it was still to cold to venture out for long, so I thought this would be the perfect remedy.


They weren't really that interested.


But Adam and I made up for it with small games of PIG every once in a while. Well, seeing us play piqued the interest of Audrey and Luke and they started wanting to get in on the action. Audrey is just tall enough to dunk. It's awesome. Luke, however, is still a little young and lacks the skill and coordination needed to shoot, but he still loves to play. When he wants to shoot (read: put the ball in the hoop), he'll take the ball and walk to the basket and then hold the ball over his head. Then Adam or I will lift him up and he'll throw/drop the ball in the hoop. And he laughs and laughs and has a great time.





As I said, his age has limited some of his technical ability to do certain things - like shoot, dunk, and dribble the ball. But he certainly tries to improvise. His version of dribbling the ball is to simply drop it right in front of him and let it bounce a few times on it's own and then pick it up again, and drop it again. (And he watches it intently the whole time.)



It's pretty cute.



I think his favorite thing to do, though, is get the rebounds. He loves going after the ball after we have shot it. He'll retrieve the ball and bring it back to us and we'll shoot it again. Over and over and over again.






And then he laughs as he goes and gets the ball again.





It may sound funny, but it's really more like playing fetch than anything else!

(Mom, did you just make an analogy that makes me sound like a dog?!)

He loves going and getting the ball even if it hasn't been shot through a basketball hoop - sometimes I'll just roll the ball on the ground to him and he'll pick it up and bring it back to me, only to have me roll it away again!


Like every great athlete, he's versatile and excels at many different skills. Here, it looks like he's taking a break between fetching, I mean, rebounding the ball, to do a short ballet-inspired impressionistic dance.

(Other kids are jealous of my nice extension - look at those pointed toes!)

Those fancier moments don't last long before my boisterous boy is back to cause some serious mayhem on the basketball "court"...

So, watch out!!