Hoop Dreams

Hello! So, in the extremely long absence since my last post (sorry about that), I have developed quite the love of bap-a-ball, it's a game where you dribble around a ball and throw it through a hoop. It's a crazy amount of fun. When I was a little baby, I used to have a tiny hoop set but now that I am a huge toddler, I dwarf the entire system and I can throw the tiny bap-a-balls like nobody's business. My love of that set did lead me to be a Mizzou bap-a-ball player for Halloween. Then they got Michael Porter Jr. Coincidence? I think not.

For the third year in a row, (for the purposes of this blog) I was really into the NCAA tourney and once again filled out a bracket. I am learning to count, but can only seem to say the numbers 2, 3, and 8 which I repeat over and over while counting to 10. While this drives Mommy and the tall man crazy, it helped a lot with the bracket because I just picked all 2's, 3's and 8's! I didn't too bad either, I finished right in the middle of the pool, which I'm not allowed to swim to yet, but is ok for gambling. It was a pool for DaDa's (the tall man) work. He finished tied for 1st place. If GoneSagga would have won, he would have won fair and square and MaMa would have taken 4th: not a bad haul for the Fox Family!

My love of sports balls and my ability to say Bap-a-ball has led me to call every ball I see Bap-a-ball, even polka dots and the sun. For Christmas, Nana and PaPa gave me a bigger hoop set and with the weather being nice, I broke it out this weekend. How did I do? Well, take a look at the video below and tell me I don't look like Mike. Now, I'm so obsessed with my new set, I constantly want to go outside and play with it. Hopefully, it stays nice so I'm not freezing my bap-a-balls off. I'm learning some of the other sports names, like Base-ba-ball and Golf-ba-ball because the tall man can't stop watching them on t.v. but for now, bap-a-ball is my jam.

Spring Fever and My First (Solo) Bracket

Welp, I've now made it in the outside world as long as I was in the womb. As of my last doctor visit I am in a much lower percentile in weight and a much higher percentile in length. Also, I'm working on popping out my eighth (!) tooth. And for the first time in my short life, I'm dealing with a fever. The Tall Man says the only prescription is more cowbell, but the nurse says fevers are healthy at my age to chase away the bad stuff. Good thing too, because I have no idea what a cowbell is.

Last March I talked about how the Tall Man was all atwitter about March Madness. This year, I filled out my own bracket (with the help of Cheerios, Puffs and blind luck). I picked Kansas to win it all which I thought was pretty solid...you should have seen the Tall Man blow his top. But now I know why he's insane. Have you seen these games? THEY'RE CRAZY. Even Taller men making baskets, beating buzzers and kissing cheerleaders. I may have to become a basketball player. Wink.

Speaking of becoming things, I am becoming quite the army crawler, puller upper and stander. Mom thinks I am close to actual crawling, but she's been saying that for about a third of my life. Has it really been since New Year's since I've done a blog? Holy cow. I am now at a new Day Care. It's over at Miss Loreez house. I have made an incredible amount of friends. I can't count but there must be a hunred of em. They are very encouraging when I pop a tooth or stand up on my own or make a mess everywhere. I'm usually doing one of the three.  In the looks department, you may notice I am now much sleeker. I got my third (!) haircut recently.

Now that I have myself a nice little routine down, I will definitely try to do this more often, especially after my first Easter. I'm really looking forward to that, because it will be nice to know what Easter means. I hope there are Peeps involved. Eli, out.

This is Madness!

With the help of the tall man, I have filled out my first NCAA bracket. He gave me a lot of advice like: pick a team you think not many other people will have in the final four, don't go too heavy on early upsets and go with your gut. Mom was helpful too. She explained which teams had the better uniforms, what the names of the teams were, their mascots and most importantly, what basketball is. The dog didn't help at all, he tried to eat my bracket. I'll note that for later as it seems a good excuse if I'm running behind on my homework.

I was hooked on the NCAA tourney from the opening tip. There was the dizzying high of watching a team I picked (Notre Dame) win a close one in the first game. Then the diaper-filling low of watching my Elite Eight (Elite Eight!) Iowa St. Cyclones lose to UAB. The Tall Man says never trust a team with initials and now I know why. Besides, it could be worse: I heard the Tall Man say he had ISU in his Final Four while his less tall friend had Iowa State winning it all! I will say, if more of my final four teams lose, I'll have to join him in hitting the bottle...and by bottle I mean the amniotic sac that surrounds me - that's the only thing I can hit right now.

Read 'em and weep...not bad for a fetus