Monday, November 03, 2008

Halloween, Basketball, and other random thoughts

It's been a few days since I've put anything on here, so here are some entirely unrelated items of note:

Halloween:
Adam carved his own jack-o-lantern this year and did an excellent job. He loves carving pumpkins with his dad and this year they did it right after we got home from Adam's basketball game on Thursday (see below). I told him to tell his dad about his game. His response? "You tell him. I need to do my pumpkin."
I think if Noah could articulate his thoughts he would state emphatically that this Halloween was officially the best week of his young life. We went to our Halloween play on Monday, attended a party on Tuesday, had his party at Pre-school on Thursday, went to the costume parade at Adam's school on Friday, and capped off the week with a big night of trick-or-treating also on Friday. He loved being Bob-the-Builder. The tool belt was just as good as a light saber apparently, and once he figured out that candy came with it I think I could have put him in a Tinkerbell costume without any argument. (Just don't call him Bob. It's Bob-the-Builder, thank you very much.)

Adam did both of these all by himself. He did the little one without a template!

Notice the candy in his hand.

He couldn't stuff it in fast enough.
Basketball
Adam has been playing basketball for a few weeks now and it's a huge victory for us that he has gone to every game and actually been willing to play. He's not into sports - at all. I don't make him play (soccer and baseball haven't been such positive experiences for any of us) but he asked to sign up for basketball so we decided to give it a shot. At the game last Tuesday there were only five kids there which meant that Adam had to play the entire game. His team mates were all sweating buckets, and you could practically see their hearts beating in their little red faces. Adam, on the other hand, was looking very refreshed. I called him to the sideline at half time and pointed the sweating out to him and told him that he needed to help them out more. After the game started again and he was still playing the middle third of the court (never under his basket, never near his opponent's basket - he would interact with the other kids as they ran past him from one end to the other) I told him that he needed to get into the game. He looked back at me and yelled "It's EASIER this way!" By the fourth quarter he was asking his coach how many more minutes. A seven year old shouldn't be that tired!
Notice the red/sweaty face on Ty and how Adam looks like he just had a nice, refreshing glass of lemonade while sitting at the side of the pool.


Before Adam's game on Thursday I did something that I swore I would never do. I bribed him. He was so timid on the court and so willing to let the other kids run over him that while we were driving to the game I told him that I would get him a treat of his choice if he would shoot the ball at least two times during the game. He agreed to try. That's all a mother can ask. I told him that it didn't matter if the ball went in, I just wanted him to shoot it. Fast forward to the end of the game - there's about 5 minutes left and Adam has only touched the ball a couple of times. In spite of all of the encouragement from the sideline (in the form of a treat reminder) he hasn't attempted any shots. He got the ball around the free throw line and was getting ready to put it up, when suddenly the ball was ripped from his hands. They have a rule with these little guys that you can't steal the ball. If the ball is stolen, the whistle is blown and the ball is returned to the original kid. Adam didn't get the ball back though, because the kid who stole it was on his team. Aaargggghhhh!! The people in the stands next to me also noticed and everybody groaned. One dad said audibly "They do that same thing to my kid too." Adam turned to me and yelled "SEE? He always takes it from me!" I told him to just try again. It only took about a minute before they were back on our end of the court. Adam got the ball again and he immediately put it up - straight into the air - nowhere near the basket - but I cheered like a mad woman. Adam grinned and ran back down the court. The next time they came up the court, Adam's friend tossed him the ball (after some encouragement from his mom) and Adam put it up. It went in! The crown went wild! Seriously? I was shocked at how much cheering happened after that one basket. I suddenly wondered if it was really that miraculous that Adam made a basket, but I brushed that away and gave him a big thumbs up. He turned to me and yelled "That's two shots. Now I get a donut!" Nice.

In spite of his offensive struggles, Adam is a defensive machine. In Thursdays game, none of the kids that he was assigned to guard ever even touched the ball, let alone shot it. Adam was all over them. Sometimes even when our team was on offense. He knows how to get into an opponent's head.
This kid was hilarious. Check out the stink-eye that he is giving Adam. He got so sick of Adam in his face that he actually started throwing his shoulders into him and trying to knock him down. He never got the ball while Adam was guarding him though.

Other Random Thoughts
1. Adam started piano lessons a few weeks ago, and so far, so good. He doesn't argue too much about practicing and he's already memorized a couple of songs. He's even been willing to play them for other people without too much begging from me. Adam's never been one for performing, so it shocked all of us when he agreed to play his songs over the phone for my mom and then again for my sister - all on the same day. Yeaaaaaaaa Adam!

2. My voting sticker is looking a little worn out, but I get one more day out of it. Phil is so excited about election day that I think he might actually wet his pants. It's seriously his Superbowl - except even better because it's only this big once every four years. He put a Barack Obama sticker in the window of his car which is pretty daring considering we live in the reddest county in the reddest state in the entire country. Remember 1992? Bill Clinton won the presidency, but here in Utah he came in third - behind George Bush and Ross Perot. I'll blog more on Utah politics another day. It's enough to drive a Mormon to drink.

3. Here's a picture of a spider on a flower right outside my front door. Creepy, but cool at the same time. I'm still trying to figure out this blasted camera.
4. Noah clearly doesn't like brussels sprouts, or squash. (I love how in spite of the poor video quality, you can very clearly see his nasty, runny nose. Anybody else gagging?)

2 comments:

Kelly Hill said...

Oh goodness, that was HILARIOUS!! He kept saying he thought it was yummy even though he was about to yack. What a cutie.

Adam - you're AWESOME!!!! I was so impressed with your piano playing abilities. Incredible! Your mommy's too, by the way. And way to go with the basketball thing. I'd love to come and watch if you'll get me your schedule. : )

The costumes were great. So were the pumpkins.

What a fun post.

Amy said...

Can I just tell you how much I love your blog. I could just sit and read it for hours, which is exactly what I've been doing. Anyway, I sure miss you guys and I can't wait to see you after Christmas.