Athlete?

I am not athletic. As a child I had a short stint in basketball, at which I was allegedly so bad that I felt the need to lie to my parents about my prowess, and I wouldn't have been caught in the lie because- lucky me!- parents weren't allowed to watch...except or the very last game. Where I did NOT live up to my hype. I moved on to t-ball and softball, and while I don't remember a lot about my t-ball days (we wore yellow shirts and named ourselves the Lemondrops, and a cute boy named Levi would come watch sometimes), I do remember some about softball- namely the fact that at the very beginning of the season they tried us at all of the infield positions and then I was settled way out in the outfield. You know why that is, right? Because 7-year-old girls don't hit the ball that far out. In 7th grade I moved to a new school and tried out for the volleyball team. And, oh my goodness, I made the team! Turns out I made the team because I was tall...and that's it. I didn't make it again in 8th grade. I also did a little bit of swimming and had a couple years of dance that didn't turn out too badly because, you see, it's not that I'm not coordinated- I just never really understood the game. My mom wasn't an athlete; my dad wasn't an athlete. We didn't watch football on Sundays or have family games of soccer in the back yard.

I think I could have been a good competitor; while my family is not an athletic people, we do like to win. A lot. We like to win (destroy people) at strategy games (dominoes, spades) and we like to win at grammar and language and spelling. (Yeah, that's a competition. You didn't know that? Ohmygosh, it's horrible to be called out for a spelling mistake! Recently my mom corrected me for saying "lay" where "lie" was needed- mortifying.) We've been accused of always talking about spelling. Which is totally not true- we like to talk about food, too. But I digress...

Dave IS an athlete. He played football and soccer and tennis and baseball. He gets it. And he's good at it. "It" being anything he plays. He's good at sand volleyball and dodgeball even though he's in his mid-30s and doesn't exercise.

So if we were to make a Punnent Square* for athletic ability, with me having the recessive genes (aa) and Dave having the dominant genes (Aa, AA), our kids would have at least a 75% chance of being athletic- possibly 100% if Dave has two dominant genes. Pretty good odds!

Turns out "pretty good" isn't "sure bet". We're pretty sure Will got two recessives. Not that we can say for sure- he's only just started out in his athletic endeavors. He started gymnastics several weeks ago (we really need to work on his core strength!) and just this past Saturday he started playing soccer. We were pleasantly surprised that he did not mope around complaining of being tired. He ran the whole practice. He just ran behind the ball. Way behind the ball. And if he got the ball, he might give it a little kick and that was it.

I do have a little hope. The glimmer of tenacity was there- I totally would have been sitting on the sidelines whining for water. And to be fair, Dave really hasn't worked with him on the game. (It is Dave's job...I can count on one finger the things I know about soccer- kick the ball in the goal.) So there's still hope.

* I started Biology 211 last week. I am SO going to rock the genetics chapters.