Speaking of March Madness...

Remember how Julian was forever changed by beach balls the first time he laid eyes on them? Well, he still could be entertained by one for quite some time. It's so cute how he still loves his beach ball and his eyes still light up whenever we get home and he sees it. But...I gotta say, I think his love for beach balls is being replaced by a new OB.SESS.ION. with "ba-da-da's!" What's a "ba-da-da" you ask?

He absolutely LOVES BASKETBALLS! He goes crazy googly-eyes when he sees one! In fact, anytime he sees any sports ball, he calls it a basketball. Soccer ball, baseball, football: they're all basketballs to him. When he goes to his grandparents' house, all he wants to do lately is go outside and "bounce" the ball (ok, watch somebody else do it) and shoot some baskets.

He will spot a ba-da-da from a mile away. A couple weeks ago we were in Gap Kids in Nashville, and all of a sudden I hear Julian's "ba-da-da" siren going off and I look all around and I can't find what he's talking about. Then I look up, way up into a dark corner (the lights weren't working in the store that day), and sure enough, there were basketballs that they'd used as part of their display. He's spotted them right when we walked in. A few days later we were in Goodwill and Julian's ba-da-da siren again, started going off. We were walking by the clothes and so I knew there were no basketballs. But he kept insisting and pointing. After a minute or so I finally put him down and asked him to show me where it was. He walked right back to where he had been pointing and started tugging on a little boy's t-shirt that had a basketball on it. And one more story for good measure: we were eating in a restaurant and Julian's ba-da-da siren starts going off. We were all looking around and could not find what he was talking about. Then finally, duh! He was looking at the game on TV! Now he LOVES to watch basketball. It was on the TV at a kiosk in the mall in Atlanta and he walked right up to it and started pointing and the siren was going off. Now, a lot of times he'll simply see a TV and start asking for "ba-da-da" because he knows he can watch it on there. When he spent some time with his grandparents and Uncle Berkeley and Aunt Candace last week, I heard he liked to sit and watch with his Uncle Berk, a huge basketball fan. And when they weren't doing that, he wanted to go outside and shoot baskets with him. I kept saying "it's a perfect month for him!" because basketballs are everywhere we turn!

Well, last night I went to watch one of my YW perform in a play at her school, so daddy and Julian stayed home and played together. Stace sent me a text with these pictures and said "This is hilarious! He is so interested in the game and nothing else." Stace said if he'd turn the channel, Julian would just go back to playing, but if he'd turn it back to the game, Julian would stop everything and watch. So funny!

Basketball is one game I never really got into. I LOVE soccer, LOVE baseball, I can get into football, but basketball has always been just kinda "meh" to me. Looks like I need to start changing my tune if this obsession keeps up! :D

PS: please disregard the state of our living room in these pictures! And no, he's not wearing a dress, Stace must have not snapped him back up after changing his diaper!