Daddy, Can I Take Basketball Lessons?

There are moments parenting when you realize just how much your child is like you. This week was one of those moments. The theme of my blog is sports, food and my kids. And it's clear to me that if my older daughter had her own blog (and she's already asked me if she could), her theme would be sports, food and dad.

It started last week when she got in trouble in school for talking when she shouldn't have. A normal occurrence for her, but this time she swore she wasn't talking and didn't understand why her teacher wasn't very nice. As a kid, I was a big talker, too. And I was also a trusting soul, thinking everybody should be nice and honest. Teaching my daughter that some people just aren't nice and preparing her to deal with it, I could hear my father's voice some 25 years ago.

As the weekend rolled around, my daughter's sports-loving nature shined through. Saturday, she completed her third dance audition in eight days. Ballet, jazz, and finally my favorite - hip hop. In fact, this summer, in addition to playing taxi driver for her to the studio several times a week, I'll haul myself up there for an adult hip hop class. Yeah, she got her dance skills from me. Of course, I was much older than seven when I learned to dance.

At seven, I was dancing around the schoolyard basketball court doing my best MJ. And Sunday, when we arrived at a friend's house for a kids play date and cook out, I quickly took to the pick-up b-ball game going on in the driveway. My younger daughter went inside to find her friend, but my older hugged my hip, dribbling around and taking five foot jump shots, even making a few. She played for over an hour, dripping wet of sweat, stopping only momentarily for water breaks. She even had a ripped pant leg to show for her newly found passion.  By the end of the night, she'd be asking me "Daddy, can I take basketball lessons?"

When we returned home that night, we both hit the showers, and then proceeded to put a delicious bow on the weekend by hanging out in the kitchen and baking a blueberry crumb cake together. She worked on mastering her measurements, artfully placing blueberries on top of the batter I mixed up, and sprinkling streusel on top.

Yes, mini-me is on full display these days and I couldn't be more proud!