there are some skills you can't outgrow

When the doctor announced that we had just brought a little boy into the world, my husband and I decided that, when it came to sports, he would learn equally. You need to realize that I come from a family of three daughters...all of whom played basketball, and my husband came from a family of three sons and a daughter...the sons (and parents) all very passionate about wrestling. At the age of five, Caden started wrestling. It was cute, and I didn't mind taking him to the practices because I had no idea what was going on and figured I could learn a few things. I had also realized that the area we live in doesn't teach basketball until the second grade. Caden enjoys wrestling but felt bad last year when he had to wrestle against his friends. After winning the first time, he came back to the bleachers saying that he thinks he should have let the other boy win. He felt terrible. And he had decided that maybe wrestling wasn't for him. Shortly after, he realized that the following season, he would also be on the older end of the scale, so he thought maybe one more year would be okay. My husband and I couldn't help but laugh. You can imagine my excitement when the flyer for little kids basketball came out. Knowing that he'd miss the first session, my son and I began working at home. We went over the basic fundamentals of dribbling, passing, shooting and defensive stance. We shuffled in a defensive position back and forth across the driveway until our legs burned, laughing the entire time. Those lessons I had learned from my father and coach came rushing back. It was like I had never stopped playing the game. I was still shooting in my dad's shed. Beating up on my older sister. Those are some of my fondest memories as a child and teenager, and I was experiencing it all again with my seven year-old son. I realized afterward that this must be how my husband feels when he works with Caden. Helping our children to experience the same memories we had is part of the circle of life; or at least it's a goal of ours. So what if my son never plays high school basketball...and I end up spending most Saturday's in a gym...we have these moments. And they are truly magical.