My poor baby boy! There's one part of my marriage that is glaringly backwards from most marriages...I'M the one who LOVES sports! I've worked hard over the last 12+ years to get Brandon to join the competitive, and fun filled world of being a sports fan and have ultimately succeeded in my mission! It is not abnormal now for me to find Brandon watching a game without me and I have even caught him on occasion watching sports news! What!?!? What can I say, my dad raised me like a boy in some ways and teaching me all about sports, ingraining in me a competitive attitude and even coaching me in the not-so-subtle ways of playing dirty from time to time (only when necessary of course...!!!) were only a few of the highlights of my life growing up with a dad who only had girls. I now, in turn, am teaching my kids the same thing. Ash is definitely a fan of the teams I love but when it comes down to it he would rather play a video game or read than sit and watch a game. Maddox, on the other hand, has dove head first into the wonderful world of sports and I truly believe was born with a more competitive spirit than even I have! In fact, I'm having to tone down Maddox in some ways. He has a tendency to take his love of sports and his devotion to his team a step too far. He's a work in progress.
Anyway, this year, the ever-looked-forward-to Bedlam football game was fast approaching and I was getting excited! As the date on the calendar came closer, though, I debated giving Maddox the bad news that he wouldn't be home for the game. Instead, he would be at Christmas program dress rehearsal at the church. Yikes! I knew I would have to tell Maddox eventually but before I knew it it was the morning of the Christmas rehearsal and I still hadn't broken the news to my youngest and most competitive son. Ugh. As I told Maddox to get dressed and he saw that I had chosen an Oklahoma State t-shirt for him to wear he asked "Who are we playing today??" Oh no. Here we go. This is the moment I've been dreading. I knew what had to be done but that didn't make my stomach hurt any less. With my heart in my throat I said "Today is Bedlam. Today we play OU..." I braced myself for the worst of the worst and Maddox's reaction pretty much met my expectations. He immediately threw himself onto the sofa, face down and refused to get ready. He said he "wasn't going to practice" and that we "couldn't make him." I was biting my lip with anxiety. I had no idea what to do. Stammering over my words, I began explaining that he had to go to practice, he had made a commitment...basically saying a bunch of things that even I didn't believe myself but knew I had to say. Blah. Blah. Blah.
Maddox laid in silence for a few minutes before rolling over and giving his best, most dramatic and heart wrenching performance trying to sway me into letting him watch the game. I was relieved to see that Maddox was over-doing it. If you know Maddox, you know that means he will do what he has to do but just wants to be sure everyone knows he's not happy about it. Eventually, Maddox got up, got dressed and went to practice. The game went on without him. It may be a good thing he wasn't there to see it as we lost...or, on the other hand, maybe the game would have turned out differently if my little good luck charm had been watching the game with me. Who knows. Either way, we survived the day, we survived another children's Christmas program and we survived yet another loss in the big, bad Bedlam game. Next year we're hoping for a win and we're REALLY hoping that the Bedlam game and the Christmas program dress rehearsal don't fall on the same day.
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