Deuce the Athlete and Julia the Sweetheart

Deuce probably won’t make millions playing basketball or football. We were doing some jumping today, and the kid’s got no hops. He’ll also probably be a lot like his old man and be just shy of six feet (maybe a little taller). It’s a shame, because he’s got a great nickname.

His cousin Declan is enormous and has a good shot at playing football. He’s like 16 pounds at three months. His head is good-sized, too.

My boss says soccer is good because one doesn’t have to be a freak of nature to excel at it.

The boy has a good tolerance for pain, though. We were practicing bounce passes tonight – I kept telling him, “Let’s pass like Steve Nash!” Since he’s a big Nash fan, we really worked the fundamentals of the bounce pass and it was fun. Except for the time he failed to catch the ball with his hands and decided to catch it with his face. He got a very bloody nose, to which his reaction was, “Daddy, I got boogers, I need to blow my nose.” A few Kleenex and a new t-shirt and we were back at it.

Last Sunday, we were at a kids’ Easter party in which there were games. He was the first kid to hit the basket three times with the bean bag. The other parents said he was “leaning in” but he was behind the line. It’s not our fault he knows the rules of the game and uses them to his advantage. They aren’t “loop-holes” if they’re written into the law.

Then, for the next game, they had the egg-in-the-spoon race. That’s the one where you have to win the race, but can’t drop the egg you’re holding in your spoon. The contestants used plastic eggs that they had hunted earlier in the day. After having the rules explained to him and experimenting with the egg in his spoon, the boy ran back over to me telling me that his egg was too big. He wanted a smaller egg that would fit better in the spoon. After the equipment change, he won the race.

Earlier last week, we were playing soccer in the back yard. We practiced kicking with both feet (I think he’s right-handed and right-footed). I said he should kick with his left foot, too. Being ambidextrous is key in soccer. Later in the night, when I complimented his ambidextrous kicking, he said, “I have two feet so I kick with two feet.” I didn’t even prompt that.

Julia is growing well. For a while there, she was very low on the weight and height charts, but she’s gaining weight. Very petite. She still has her Daddy’s blue eyes, too. Her mom’s there, too – she’s very cute but very demanding.

I like that she stares longingly at me.