Snips and Snails and Puppydog Tails

My very favorite Giant!

Today started the big boys’ basketball seasons. Caleb kicked us off with the first game of the day at 9 am. His team, the Giants, played his “old” team, the Bulldogs. It was a tough loss, but the Bulldogs are known for blowing out their opponents and the Giants hung tight with them until the 4th quarter, when it sort of turned into a bloodbath. But, that’s not what this post is about. 🙂

On the Bulldogs, there is a child who. is. a. tree. I’m serious, he’s got to be part Redwood tree or something. He is head and shoulders above the Bulldogs’ next tallest player, who is head and shoulders above, well, everyone else on the court. I’ll be honest, all the parents sitting around me were wondering how old this child really is.

After the game, as we were leaving the school, Bryan and the boys were doing their usual game re-cap (translation: I am uncharacteristically quiet as they discuss the technicalities of the game that I don’t understand – yes, even for 2nd grade basketball). Here’s part of the conversation:

B: Caleb, do you know if that really tall kid on the Bulldogs is in 2nd grade? Or how old he is?

C: Yes. He’s in 2nd grade. He’s 8.

B: Wow. He’s really tall. But, if he’s really in 2nd grade and 8 years old, like you, then it’s really important not to say anything, even in joking fun, about how big he is.

C: Why?

B: Well, because he might not think it’s a good thing to be so tall. Sometimes when people are very different from others – visibly different, like really, really tall, or really, really short, or really fat or really skinny, or anything else that makes them visibly different from other people, they aren’t comfortable with it.

C (in his classic matter-of-fact tone): But Everybody’s Different.

Have I mentioned before how smart this kid is? And how much I love him? He is today’s proof that my kids are here to teach me far, far more than I can ever hope to teach them.  I don’t think I could have been more proud of him if he’d just single-handedly won the 2nd grade basketball national championships for the whole wide world (because surely there is such a thing). Happy, happy Momma tonight.