New Ball Store!

For Frankie, everything in life revolves around balls. He sees with “Eyeballs!!!”, a phrase always joyfully spoken with multiple exclamation points as he practically gouges out his own with his fingers. He wants food shaped into or from a “ball”, demanding blackberries, cherry tomatoes or anything sliced into circles. His teacher, Kerstin, says “I’ve know kids who really like balls, but Frankie has an obsession!” When leaving school he turns and says “Bye Bye Balls!” This past Sunday, Frankie discovered his new favorite place in Austin – Academy Sports. Otherwise know as “New Ball Store”. To put this in perspective, Frankie refers to Terra Toys, the toy store across the street from us, as “Ball Store”. This past Sunday morning, we went to Academy to buy a small tent for our Hawaii trip and as soon as Frankie saw aisle upon aisle of footballs, basketballs, wiffleballs and soccer balls…he shook with excitement. We spent an hour poking, prodding, bouncing and running around the store. For the rest of the day, anytime we got in the car, he asked “New Ball Store?” in the hopes that we would return him to this paradise on earth. The next morning, the first words out of his mouth were, of course, “New Ball Store”? I anticipate we’ll be returning soon.