Our Wide World of Sports.

Get ready.  About a month ago, Marley started playing lacrosse.  (Sort of.)  What I mean is that she's been to several practices run by our town's fairly new youth lacrosse program, and she is all over those ground balls.  At first, whenever I casually brought up the instructional league, she was hesitant.  But even that was a change from the straight-up no she gave me about soccer, and later, basketball.  And then she said she might like playing lacrosse if I were one of the helpers, and so I immediately offered my assistance to the coach.  (Luckily, he doesn't need it and relies on high school volunteers, because even though I am a paid lacrosse coach, let's face it: I have a really, really hard time catching the ball.)  To help Marley at least give it a try, I reminded her that lacrosse players wear skirts as part of their uniforms, and that two of her babysitters are lacrosse ladies, too.

And then, during her first practice, when she scurried over for a water break, she leaned into me and whispered, "I like it."  And I should've played it cooler than I did, because I got more and more enthusiastic as the hour went on and then I mortified her at the end of the session by cheering and clapping, and she almost retired her stick right then.  It's just that I was so happy to see her all sporty in sneakers and goggles.  Here's something I thought I would never say, at least not for another five or ten years: Marley wears a mouth guard. (And she was so excited to get one, until of course, she had to put it in.)

And it gets better.  Last weekend, my sporty dreams really came true when Todd relented, and we purchased a basketball hoop for the driveway we widened last year.  Happy Early Mother's Day to me!  It took a while to get it set up, so I had spare minutes to create an impromptu music mix for the first shoot-around, beginning, obviously, with the Harlem Globetrotter's "Sweet Georgia Brown" and including the Chicago Bulls' entrance music and Skee-Lo's "I Wish."  Also, "Basketball Jones."  The first afternoon it was up, I also happened to be watching my nieces and nephews for several hours, so it was a little chaotic, and I think at least two kids got knocked in the bean by a wayward rebound.  But they recovered.  

I absolutely love this hoop.  I always wanted one growing up, but our driveway was a steep hill that sloped into a garage, and there was no way.  So.  Thanks, Todd.  He calls me a Full-Time Dreamer, quoting the great David St. Hubbins, while I'm shooting with my tongue out and my arms holding the follow-through.  But I am having fun.  And I like to think of Marley and Rudy out there in a few years shooting around.  Right now, since it's adjustable, Marley hurls her yellow playground ball with rare luck when I've got it set at eight feet, and then I pull it up to ten feet and pretend that my foul shot practice means something.  Sometimes, when I get a basket, and Marley yells, "Swish!" or Emma smiles and says, "Go, Jenny!" I feel happy that those girls might remember me as their crazy mom and aunt who had fun playing basketball.  At least, I'm hoping that those memories help to balance any that Marley and Rudy have of my grumpy clean-up sessions.  And now those two are watching the Celtics in the playoffs with me, which is delightful.  Perhaps Kurtis Blow (also on our mix, of course) said it best: "I like the pick-and-roll, I like the give-and-go...To the hoop, y'all!"