Love - 40

Today we went to the tennis courts as a family.  We went down last week and the kids just scooted around and rode their bikes on the empty courts & we played tag.  But today, we actually went with the intent to play tennis.  

Brian and I used to play together, but then two things happened: 1) we started having kids &  2) Brian started playing like we were on Centre Court at Wimbledon and he was Andre Agassi. You see, I like to play for fun, but when I've got Andre across from me lobbing balls one moment for drop shots and whacking them at me the next-we decided it was better for our marriage to stop.  

 So, today we rolled onto the nearly vacant courts with all kinds of gear in tow.  It was Brian's goal to teach Emma how to play.  I love how optimistic my husband is...it would never occur to me that teaching a child to play tennis, one who has never held a racket, would be possible to do with 5 other people wandering around.  We stationed ourselves as far from the other courts as possible, call it our attempt at proper tennis etiquette.  So, we were on the second to last court, with one empty court against the fence on one side and two courts keeping us from the other matches going on the the other side.  We felt like that was a good enough buffer.  Advantage Willmer.

Right as were getting started, two men showed up to play.  We moved over a court and told them they could take the one against the fence so we had room on each side giving our ball boy, Titus, enough room to ride his scooter over to any wayward balls (and trust me almost no balls were non-wayward).  Instead, the two men came onto the court right next to us, leaving no buffer and an open court against the fence.  Huh? Did they not look closely enough, did they really want a piece of Willmer on a beautiful Saturday morning?  We were perplexed by their choice, but hey, what can you do.  Deuce.  At this point, we had already spread out Willmer style with a pink bicycle, 2 scooters, 3 tennis rackets, a double wide stroller, 2 croquet mallets, one badminton racket, and 5 kids, one of whom could not find a glimpse of happiness for the life of her.  Brian was valiant in his efforts, and after about 10 minutes he asked me if I wanted to teach Emma.  Being the very definition of the word patience, I gladly took over the reigns.  I was explaining how to place her feet and shoulders, how to hold a racket and all the other tennis types of things.  She did okay and we had a few volleys.


There was lots of crying, 1 John McEnroe attitude, 2 kids who had to go potty, and Nehemiah was trudging all over the place playing soccer with his tennis ball.  When Emma would hit a wayward ball, Titus would scoot, right onto the court of the 2 brave men next to us, mid-game, and scoop it up.
They were great and one even explained he came from a family of 10.
That's unfathomable.
I wondered silently to myself, if his mom ever took them to play tennis-
with other people playing at the same time.
He still likes tennis, so probably not :)  

Anywho,  Brian decided he wanted to hit a few balls back and forth with me. There goes that optimism again.  Feeling the optimistic vibe, I said, "Sure!"  He put Gwenyth down, mind you, she wasn't going to hamper any of his tennis game.  Gwenyth could watch and marvel from the bench.
He's got mad skills, yo!  Folks, Andre Agassi is coming out of retirement!

 
We started playing and were amazed at what our 30 something bodies could do...
for about 4 seconds, and then all Willmerness broke loose.  Nehemiah was wandering through my side of the court with his croquet mallet, hitting his tennis ball. Titus was scooting figure 8's through the middle of our game (at least he was wearing a helmet) with his rainboots on, Addie was riding her bike around the outside of our court, and Gwenyth was on the ground at the net, rolling around, wailing with conviction, kicking and screaming, snot abounding.  We called her the "net judge" and tried to explain that her noise was unbecoming of an official.  She screamed louder and my optimistic husband just smiled a loving smile at me and continued on, nothing was going to keep him from experiencing a few minutes back to the glory days of tennis with his wife.   

Balls were bouncing in between kids, through brothers and over scooters.  Anytime we hit one awry, one or more kids would be running onto the men's court next to us, waving around a badminton racket or a mallet-fighting over who could get to it first, with an occasional dive onto the ball from Big Son.  Perfect tennis etiquette.  It was classic.  It was momentous.  It probably won't happen again for a long time.  Brian said after 10 mintues, I don't know how you do this all day?  I said, well, I don't take them to play tennis :)   Advantage Mommy.

 A photo from Honeymoon.
Andre on the left, Steffi on the right (just kidding!).