Basketball

This is going to have to be a quickish post since I'm in the midst of planning Evie's 12th birthday party and need to head into Seattle before the kids come home on the bus. I promised some more proud moments in my last post. I have several to share of Ainsley, perhaps I'll get to it this weekend.

Adrian started playing sports around the time we moved. That is partially a coincidence. Ainsley's early years were difficult and committing to team sports when you have a child who is in and out of the hospital for surgeries every few months would have been "too much". Plus aside from the regular mobility issues we have there were a couple times when Ainsley was in a spica cast followed by a brace. Taking her anywhere during those periods was quite difficult. It is easier now that I have a garage I can park in. It makes it easier to load Ainsley and all her gear, including the wheelchair, into the car. It used to be such a pain when we had a shared driveway. Driving and parking are easier than in the city.

It attracts a lot of attention to show up to a sporting event with a child in a wheelchair, who can't walk to the bleachers. When Ainsley is even a little sick I stay home with her. So I missed Adrian's first couple basketball games for that reason. Unfortunately he made his first score when I wasn't there! He was so proud, and so were we. Luckily Evie got it on video. I wanted to post it but my computer is too low on memory still.  On 2/2 we packed Ainsley up and took her with us to Adrian's game.  It can be a bit tiresome to keep her safe as she tries to stand up over and over. But I she's part of the family and it's good to do these things together. She actually really likes to go and watch. It's cute, she almost always asks (without words) to join in the game. She doesn't really understand why she can't participate.

I've blogged about this in the past. Since Adrian is new to sports it has been a learning experience. He had a hard time in the beginning. If he didn't do well he would storm off and sulk, that first season. We had to threaten to pull him out many times. It was frustrating especially considering the extra effort it takes for me to get him to practices because of Ainsley. And to games due to Steve's busy work schedule. In addition I really do have a lot of additional demands on my time, so I really do consider extra-curricular activities to be a privilege that is earned. This year I've seen a change in his attitude that comes from experience (and maybe age). He's learning that to be good at something you need to be committed and practice, and that when you don't do as well as you'd like, you pick yourself up and try again. Those are great life lessons.

I'm not a sports fan. And I'm not a particularly competitive person. I always feel bad when someone has to lose. But I see the value in learning to be part of a team. And boys likes sports so it's a great way for him to connect with other boys.  As long as Adrian wants to play sports I will try to support him. Adrian really likes to win. And last year his basketball team lost every game until the very last one of the season. Some parents get really upset about such things, but to me it really is more about learning than winning.  But......

This year he has great coaches, who have done a lot of work developing plays with catchy names and they call them out during the games.  The kids work well as a team and that makes all the difference. Instead of the best players being ball hogs, the best players on this team pass the ball to the other players, even the "worst" players on the team.  It's more fun for everyone and they are WINNING. In fact they are undefeated. That is a new experience for us. 

The boys hustling down the court.

Adrian making it hard on the yellow team. Adrian has been called, on multiple occasions this year, the best defender on the team. Although he doesn't score much(yet), he does a lot to make it hard for the other teams to score. He is getting to play a lot more. He's enjoying being on the team. We are really proud of how hard he is working and how much he's grown.

 

Adrian taking a shot.

 

Another score for us!

 

Adrian defending.

I truly never thought I'd see a final score like that. EVER.

Good team work!

The expression on the boy's face who is high-fiveing Adrian cracks me up. I have to wonder if Adrian was defending against him during the game.

 

Finally Ainsley gets the ball. She is SO HAPPY. I really love this girl!

 

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!  (We will have our usual Friday family movie/pizza night, basketball on Saturday (Steve will come home from work for a few hours.) and then family time on Sunday.)  I started sending Ainsley's NovaChat communication device to school this week. I hope to get some video of the vocabs to post over the weekend. So hopefully I can post that next week.