Jayden and Basketball

Jayden's last basketball game was this weekend.  I have loved, LOVED watching him.  It was his first year playing on a basketball team and every week, I have watched him gain more confidence and be more involved.  We watched him start out as a pretty timid player and then develop into a much more aggressive player who even managed to get a few floor burns along the way from diving after balls.  It has been really fun to watch him play a sport that he seems to really like.  

Jayden, my sweet, somewhat timid child, who oftentimes folds under pressure, has turned out to have inherited some of his parent's competitiveness.  Royal and I weren't sure he had it in him, but he has stated that he really does NOT like losing and he has been willing to do extra practices with Royal and he even went to a Shooting Clinic put on by Next Level Hoops Academy in order to help him get better.

Royal has him practice dribbling with both hands and while doing so Jayden has to call out the number of fingers Royal is holding up to help Jayden learn to dribble with his eyes up.

Willow's World

Willow lives a lot of her life in her own little world.  We get over 3 hours together in the afternoon, just her and I, while we wait for Jayden to come home from school.  We eat lunch together and talk about her morning - half the time she makes up stories about what has actually gone on, which is why I wasn't sure she was completely serious when she told me someone had puked at school and it landed on her shoe...turns out that was a true story.  Then after lunch if she doesn't ask to watch a show, she will disappear into her bedroom and when I knock on the door to check on her, I am promptly told to please go away and don't listen to her.  Thankfully she is really loud, so even with her door closed I can usually make out what is happening with her dolls or made up sisters (Lemon [older sister and very naughty] and China [she plays lots of different parts]) or Sam.  Poor, poor Sam.  This is proof that Willow really needs a little sister.

Willow also loves gum.  Loves it.  She spits a piece out and goes and gets another piece.  I have to hide the extra packs of gum because the more she thinks we have, the faster she will go through it.  We sadly had our first gum TOTALLY stuck in the hair episode.  She was outside playing on a very windy day and somehow managed to get her gum stuck in her pony tail and the more she tried to get the gum out, the more it stuck.

Peanut butter really DOES work!  Slathered some peanut butter on it, worked it into the gum and hair and was able to slide her hair right out of it.  We then rinsed her hair in the sink and pulled it up into a tighter nest/bun like thingy on her head and she went outside to play without gum.  I figured we'd get her hair washed that night before bed.  Well that didn't happen, we were out and about and got home late and put the kids right to bed, so the next morning for Willow's basketball game I had to get a little more creative with her dirty, peanut buttery, gummy, hair.

Saturday was Willow's last basketball game.  I think she has had fun.  I think.  I can't really get out of her what she thought of the whole thing, other than her saying, "They just need to pass me the ball more."  Which is pretty hilarious because the majority of the game she's off in her own little world, and during this last game someone tried to pass her the ball and it bounced right off her chest because she was off staring at something else.  :)

During the warm up, she was just standing there holding the ball, so Royal and I start yelling at her, "Go shoot the ball Willow!  Go shoot!"  Instead of her snapping to and dribbling off to the basket, I got this :

I couldn't really hear her, but there was obviously some injustice happening.  Eventually she got over it and made her shot.

Willow and her best friend's last game together.

During the game, Willow is pretty hilarious.  This last game, she was running like a super hero with her arms out behind her like a cape, she was skipping while running between ends,

and while waiting for a rebound or something, she'd be jumping up touching the net.

She takes her game real serious.  Real serious.  Although she did make one basket!
Step 1 - Shooting : 

 Step 2 - Going in! :

Step 3 - Celebrating! :

It was a good game and a good season and it's just so much funner with your best friend on the team - although the coach did learn to not put Willow and Emery in the game together, it helped them focus a bit more.  :)

More Basketball

Pretty much all I've got these days is basketball.....

Last Saturday, Jayden's basketball team started out their season with a double header.  Poor, poor Jayden's team.  Both of the other teams we played, it was obvious they had been playing together since kindergarten.  One of the teams had 4 kids from Jayden's kindergarten class on it and I know they've been playing together since then.  Both the other teams were running set plays while ours was just kind of everybody out for themselves.  I'm not sure if Jayden's coaches have even played basketball before, (Royal says definitely not) but it's run on volunteers and with this being Jayden's first year and us not knowing other coaches or players, this is just the team we got. 
Royal swears he will not let our kids play basketball at the Andover YMCA again, not because Jayden's team got creamed, Royal doesn't care if they lose, but because there is no consistency with coaching or especially with reffing the games.  I thought Royal was gonna lose it on the sidelines watching the refs (granted highschool kids) call 1 out of every 10 travels, or 1 out of every few double dribbles, or not call someone stepping way over the line while in-bounding the ball.  He didn't care which team they were missing the calls for, he just couldn't stand the fact that they just didn't call them.  Royal is big on teaching our kids how to play the game right, if there are rules to follow that those get enforced all the time, which I get, consistency is important.  Royal won't coach Jayden's team because he doesn't want Jayden (and really the other parents) to hate him for doing nothing but dribbling drills, or jump stops, or pivoting for the entire practice.  We don't even have a hoop at our house, but that doesn't stop Royal from practicing with Jayden and Willow.  They do a lot of dribbling and passing.  :)  But for now, I have a purse full of lollipops to stick in Royal's mouth when he can't seem to keep it shut during the game.  I'm also pretty sure Royal might show up in a black and white striped shirt next Saturday and tell the high school kids to step off the court because he will be reffing Jayden's game.

I was a little nervous for Jayden not knowing how he was going to handle doing something he'd never done before (he tends to fold under pressure) and doing it in front of 2 bleachers full of parents and kids, but he did great.  I asked him afterwards how he was feeling before the game started and he said, "My stomach felt like there was a huge boulder sitting in it!"  Jayden picked the number 13 to be put his jersey, just like his grandpa had when he used to play.

There were a couple things watching Jayden play that made me feel so proud of him.  Whenever he got the ball, he would dribble it up the floor, stop, and then PASS the ball.  Most of the kids (on both teams really) would dribble, stop, dribble, stop, dribble, and then try and shoot.  (See why Royal was losing his mind? no fouls called....)  But Jayden was so good when he would get surrounded by the other team, to stop and not move his feet and then look to pass the ball.  The other thing, and this is what made me most happy, was that he was pumped for anybody on his team who scored points.  He would track the kid down and then give them a high-five.  Most of the time these other kids would just look at him weird, like "what the heck are you doing", but Jayden was genuinely excited for the other kid.  He had the best team spirit out there!

Willow also had a game on Saturday and her games are just hilarious.

Here she is convincing the kids she's "guarding" - they get paired up with colored wrist bands - to wrist bump her.  Whenever she'd run down the floor and find her man, she's make him bump colors with her.

And sometimes having your very best friend on your team is just too much.  It's hard to pay attention to whats happening around you when you have something to say to her!

Willow Plays Basketball

Willow had her first basketball game today!  I'm not sure if she was more excited that she got to play in a game or the fact she got a bag of cheez-its afterwards....I'm pretty sure the bag of crackers won.  :)  Willow's age is pretty hilarious to watch.  One kid takes forever dribbling the ball down the court, and all the other kids stand under the basket with their hands up - defense? looking for an offensive rebound?  staring at the crowd?  It doesn't matter, their hands are straight up in the air.

Willow taking an inbound pass.

And dribbling it up the floor with the ref right on her heels.  I'm not sure what his whistle is for, the only things they get called on is if they go out of bounds or totally push another kid.   But I'm pretty sure if Willow turned around and saw how close that guy was she would of freaked.  She still has quite an aversion to strange men (and I'm not gonna try to help her get over that one!)