In honor of the NFL’s big game this weekend, our family is playing a lot of a game we like to call Fumble!
To begin, we find any ball lying around the house. Our favorite to use is actually not a proper ball at all, but a cat toy. It is a little plush, bouncy blue and black soccer ball that is perfect because of its small size (about that of a small Clementine) and overall elusiveness. The game starts simply enough, with my daughter and I tossing the ball back and forth pretending to play basketball or football (or both) but doesn’t get really interesting until the ball scoots away after a poor throw and one of us screams out “FUMBLE!” After that verbal signal, we both chase after it, her running as fast as she can and me opting for a rotating combination of exaggerated walking, crawling and running movements. As I get close to the ball I will flick it forward, push it backwards under my legs, toss it in the air or anything else I can think of to keep it “in play.” I do so in a somewhat natural-looking clumsy motion (wanted to preserve the authenticity of the game, of course). The scene looks like those rare NFL in-game fumbles where no player can obtain position of the pigskin, and the ball squirts out from under legs, ricochets off body parts and keeps rolling down the field. This kind of silly fumble is always a hilarious scene in organized football and equally as entertaining in the home.
My girl is hysterical, her laughter robust and filling the house. I am rolling around the floor, trying to stay out of my own way and not to sustain an injury of some kind. Eventually, she will corral the ball and we begin again, taking short breaks from our game to do pretend sneezes where the ball is believed to be shooting out from our nostrils. Is there anything more humorous to a toddler (or 31-year-old) than boogie jokes?
In the end, I am usually collapsed down on the carpet, my knees fairly well rug-burned. My girl is lying on the floor, up close next to me, still breathing hard and laughing about the fun we just had together. All for free, with a little cat toy, in our own home. There is almost nothing finer!
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