Plenty of 7 year old kids enjoy basketball but don't play quite the same way as Curtis. He lines himself in front of the hoop and shoots granny style with the goal of making as many shots as possible. He tallies the score in his head and and multiplies the number of makes by 2 or 5. A made hoop is followed by a sentence like "Score!, 18 in a row, score 36." A few minutes later, "Score!, 27 in a row, score 54". His goal is to make as many as possible in the time he has at that hoop and that goal is uncompromising. I usually don't even notice anymore until another kid shows up and says "Woah, that kid's smart, is he right?" He is right about the number of shots made and he'll also keep your tally if you ask him but the shots were not in a row. He claims all of his makes are consecutive.

Curtis gets very easily "obsessed" with an activity. He has had temporary obsessions with using sidewalk chalk, playing with his Thomas table and collecting coins. Collecting to be interpreted as trying to obtain any coin he can see and frisk acquaintances for their spare change. Basketball was also an obsession so it was restricted to dad and Curtis time, for which I'm grateful. It's a wind down time in the evening for both of us and a time when I'm most likely to get his ear.

Greg, Dad