Balls

On Monday, our first snow day, Max objected to his nap.  After a nice stint outside we were all excited for family nap time... but Max apparently takes the day off from naps when it's a snow day.  And yes, I tried multiple times- it was a no-go.  Then at 7pm, we put Max to bed because he had NO naps.  He took a quick nap, and then woke like clock work at 8:15pm, like he knew the BSC Championship was about to start.  I got him out of bed and he sat on the couch and watched Butball with us- the WHOLE game!  He went to bed at midnight after not sleeping all day.  Why?  Because he is OBSESSED with balls and sports.

While watching the game on Monday night, my future flashed before my eyes.  Our boy is so talented (no I'm not biased) that someday I'm going to be watching him play some game that involves a ball, on tv.  And he will be the star, so they're going to do a pre-game story on him, naturally, and they're going to interview us, his parents, so I need to remember all his stories and love for this stuff at such an early age... here is my memories:

Since Max became semi-mobile, the ONLY toy he goes to on his own are balls.  He started with just 2 and now has 2 full baskets. Even though his shelves are packed with really great toys, he only plays with balls.  If I grab a puzzle or a book, he'll oblige me for a few minutes before heading back to the balls.

He has played catch since he could sit up.  He has a great arm.  Men stop me everywhere I go, letting me know that he's going to be the next Joe Montana.  Seriously, if I've heard it once, I've heard it a million times.  People come out of the woodwork to watch him in action.

(At this point I got distracted and I'm just now picking to post back up, a week later!)

Max knows the difference between baseball, soccer, football, and basketball.  He has pj's with the balls on them, and I can ask "where is the soccer ball" and he'll point to it.  He knows the kick soccer balls and can dribble all around our house.  When we were in Indiana over Thanksgiving, he saw someone dribbling a basketball and taught himself that as well.  Uncle Eli got him a basketball goal for Christmas-  and although it's 3 times his height and although he couldn't even come close to a basket on Deceber 25th, but January 15th, he was making baskets like crazy.  He can do it with basketballs, footballs, and any other ball he gets his hands on.  He stands at the goal and shoots baskets for 20 minutes at a time.  NO 17 month old has that kind of attention span- and Max only does when it comes to balls.

Max also has a baseball tee and a bat.  The ball is attached to the tee (Thanks Rodriguez's!) and Max bats it around constantly as well.  And when he gets tired of that, he carries the bat and finds another ball and tosses it up to hit it. Like in the air.  Holy hand-eye coordination!

Max also does drills with himself- he positions himself right in front of a wall and bounces balls against the wall and catches them.  Constantly.  He also positions himself in front of the stairs and throws balls at the stair that's eye level with him.  It bounces right back and he catches it in the air.  This is super fun for him and makes him giggle.  Seriously.  No one showed him this or makes him, he just does it!

Anything that's round-ish, is a ball.  And anything that's straight-ish and stick-like is a bat.

Max can't even talk, but he plays football with Chad.  He tossed him the ball, Chad says "hut hut" and Max runs out, turns around, and catches the ball.... over and over and over and over and over.

If basketball is on TV, Max shouts "Basketball" and shoots his imaginary ball up in the air.  If it's football, he shouts "Butball" and climbs up on the couch to watch... although sometimes he pretends he gets tackled and dives to the ground.  He LOVES soccer- mainly soccer commercials and we're not quite to baseball season yet, so we're eagerly awaiting that!

This isn't something we've taught him, it's just in his blood.  Max is a natural, and we can't wait to see which team signs him first!!