Highlights
- The Month of Monday Fundays!
- “D2” Basketball and Rubik’s Cubes
This month was full of “Monday Fundays”, a day devoted to adventure outside of the house with Mama and the boys. Here’s what the trio was up to:
1. Santa Barbara Marine Center, and then a quick stop at the zoo
2. Feeding fish at hatchery, honey bee farm, exploring old trains in Filmore
3. Collecting tadpoles and building habitat back at home
4. Exploring nature at Camarillo Grove Park; spent many hours, could’ve easily been there all day: hiking, climbing ascending trees perfect for climbing, exploring with sticks, interacting with nature center equipment, etc.
5. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
This month, we also started some rough planning for our first big family road trip slated for late August – heading up north.
Calan
The Basketball Story…
Calan played in hist first ever “D2” basketball game at the first of the month. This was actually a bit of a big deal because after 2 1/2 years of playing at the level where the hoop was 8-foot or lower, on a half size court it was now the big jump to the 10-foot rim on a full court. Calan, also made this leap up a little early at just past 7 1/2 with the age range for D2 at 8-10 years old. But he was ready skills wise, having worked so hard over the last year, especially with Coach Mark and Coach Wil along with really stepping up to match the more aggressive teammates he had on his D1 teams…and of course, the many one-on-one games in the backyard with Dada. He may not have had the same strength when shooting as the other kids on his D2 team, but he could get the ball up there easily now out to the free-throw line. One skill that stuck out was his ball handling. He was easily better at dribbling and controlling the ball out on the court than any of the other kids on his team. The most important aspect Calan had going for him was that he was a great student. Coach Steve who headed up his D2 squad echoed the same sentiment that all of Calan’s other coaches mentioned; he was the most teachable kid that age they had ever met. He has the attention and willingness to listen and learn. Add to that the fact that he’s athletic enough and you have a good combination of being able to “get it and do it”. That’s just how Calan is on most things he’s interested in.
In his first outing (Game 1), he looked small out there on the court, but he did his designated job at point guard well. He brought the ball up at the start of each possession, alert and looking for good passes once he passed half court. It was a bit different from the last time we saw him play in a game though. The kids were now more spread out, and you could feel a sense of organization out there despite it still being young kids playing basketball. Calan stayed pretty low key and didn’t quite feel comfortable yet with some of his moves and techniques he’d been working on, such as his crossover dribbles and taking the other kids on one-on-one in both offense and defense. He did manage a couple shots, including a running jumper and one semi break-away layup. Both missed, but came really close to going in. For a moment, it was fun to see him take all the confidence he’d built up in his last few basketball seasons, his football season and even the most recent soccer session and put it all to use in this new basketball scene this season.
The next couple of games pretty much went the same way, but you could really tell that the bigger, faster kids around him definitely made him reserved in what he did with the ball during practice and of course, the games. You could see him bring the ball up confidently, but as soon as the defense got to him at half court he would pick up his dribble and/or just get rid of the ball quickly. A lot of the times his passes would be so forced or attempts quickly carried out that the other team would end up with the ball. This didn’t matter; we were proud he was hanging in there as some of the games started to take on a bit of that crazy, runaround, “full contact” play we’d seen at the more chaotic D1 level. Calan got hit a couple times, but he didn’t seem too bothered by it. One game in particular got a little out of hand however, and when one of his teammates went down hard to the floor, and his mom came running out to check on him, the ref called the game before it was over. It was a frenetic scene with a lot of people expressing disappointment and anger towards the refs not calling a better game to keep the kids playing clean basketball and more importantly, safe from injury. Calan seemed annoyed more than anything right after the game ended with his team getting handed their first loss. He soon recovered, enjoying the post-game snacks outside while the adults chatted intensely about the game and the Y not doing better.
When Calan came down with a cold the following week and had to miss his fourth game, little did we know what this would mean for the future. It was his first missed game in six seasons. He was clearly sick, but what stuck out was that he wasn’t too bummed about missing the game. This went along with what we had noticed, that while he seemed to continue to enjoy practicing and playing basketball, it was a slightly different dynamic to previous seasons where the element of “fun” was such a big part of his games in particular. Calan jumping up and down while running full stride after a made shot is a picture we’ll never forgot, especially as we’ve been reminded from parents who remember seeing him celebrate like this in seasons past. In the game where he returned after being ill, he managed one segment before letting us know he didn’t feel good about playing, pointing out that the reason was because of mucus left over from the cold was coming up in his throat. His go-to remedy was to drink water. Since being on the court in the game meant he couldn’t drink his water, he wasn’t able to go back in and play.
He was pretty adamant about not wanting to enter the game despite the team all cheering him on and a group of great coaches/parents talking him through it and encouraging him to go in. The next week it happened again. We all worked hard and finally got him to go out just to bring the ball up… but had to call time-out after a minute when he ran off the court clutching his throat. It’s like he felt tremendous pressure and worry regarding his nose and throat that even though the cold was long gone, the sensation was there. It’s amazing this feeling would trigger immediately after entering the Y for a game. At home, we would play one-on-one for great lengths of time, and he was fine most of the time. At the next team practice he started taking himself out and sitting on the sidelines holding is water tightly, communicating that there was just too much mucus. We soon realized this wasn’t entirely about the leftovers of the cold, but that there is an anxiety for him that is associated with playing basketball at this level, with this team.
Calan would state strongly that it had nothing to do with being a small guy out there, fear of getting clobbered or hurt. We’ve done lots of talking and even watched a video covering MJ’s “flu game” in the ’97 Finals…Calan would get pumped up and continue to practice really hard. By the last games of the regular season, Calan would refuse to even warm up with his team as he had at least done before. He would claim he was afraid of throwing up or that he was just too tired. It’s such a range of emotions as a parent to watch this, including seeing how his own emotions didn’t even allow him to cheer for his team anymore – something he always loved doing. The celebrations were gone. Sometimes we would catch him just looking down and not even watching the action of the game in front of him.
Parents, teammates and even the coaches have been all so well-meaning in their encouragement to get Calan to play again despite it probably just adding to the pressure. Coach Steve even designed plays for Calan to drive and score with scoop layups and little fades. Both of which he learned and pulled off really well at practices, especially at the voluntary Sunday meetups where there’d be just a few kids present. As we watched the regular practices, we would see him making more free throws and layups than any of the other kids. And his form that he had worked so hard on is better than anyone else’s. But his confidence is zero at game time where the excuses of his throat and tiredness take over. We tried pep talks, bribing, being stern, literally holding his hand to walk out there…and nothing has worked up until this point. Needless to say, we continue on hoping that something will click and the mucus will go away enough for him to get back to his old self when it comes to “D2 basketball”. Thankfully, he has many other things he’s interest in…cuch as…rubik’s cubes!
Rubik’s Cubes
In the boys’ Easter baskets this year, they received a 2×2 rubik’s cube. Calan jumped on figuring it out pretty quickly but had no idea how to solve it. With a few sessions using an online tutorial, he started to make progress. This was a huge growth mindset exercise as it wasn’t easy at first. In fact, it became frustrating. But with a little perservernce, he not only figured it out he became hooked. When he saw one of the staff members at the Y working with a cube one day when we walked by the front desk, we had to stop. We got to know Troy, a 24 year old guy who’s been cubing off and on since middle school. Obviously a sharp kid, he instantly liked that Calan was interested and the two of them hit it off. Troy would show Calan approaches to solving his 3×3 cube, and Calan would listen intently, following along. Of course we also turned it into a little home school subject, looking up the history of the Rubik’s cube and learning about when and how it was invented. We dug out Dada’s old cube and other puzzles from when he was a kid and ordered Calan his first 3×3 cube off a recommended from Troy. Needless to say, this was eagerly anticipated!
Other highlights…
As the shift in hobby started to turn from rocks and gems to cubes, we did manage to attend another rock, gem and mineral show in Newbury Park. Calan and Dada had fun again exploring all of the exhibits and the hands-on areas Calan could take part in.
Piano is back (for now) as Calan practices a little bit more on a piece that Mama recently introduced to him: “Ballade” by Burgmuller Calan also visited a Los Robles Children’s Choir rehearsal and sat in and played with the Conejo Valley Youth Orchestra for fun.
On the bike front, Evan has learned to pedal a bike! He’d tried in the past on his tri-cycle and regular bike with training wheels, but he couldn’t quite get the hang of how to push forward on each rotation. Something clicked recently, and he’s able to pedal a little bit on his bikes.
In reading, he’s learning and remembering how to read bigger words like Connection and Examine.
One thing we noticed recently too, is that he’s taking each step of the stairs alternating each leg, instead of using just one leg to step up as he’d done since learning to walk. A sign of getting bigger and stronger!
Overheard one day… Calan was telling Evan how something is done, and E says “but…” Calan interrupts and says “No buts, no buts…this is the way it’s done”. This happens twice, when Evan finally says: “Let me do buts!”
Washing his feet in the sink one night (after getting dirty outside): “I don’t want to lose my feet. I just want to keep them put together.”
Being funny, Calan called Evan a “duplo”. Evan replied with “I’m not a duplo. Humans aren’t duplos.”
To Mama, saying goodbye before heading out to do some errands: Grabs her face and gives her a kiss on the lips, then says: “I’ve got a lot of crushes on you!”
“I wanna live inside myself. What if I climb out of my mouth… (pauses)… I guess I’m too big.”
“Dada, I like womens the best. But sometimes I like mans.”
“The tadpoles don’t have arms, so they can’t play ring around the rosy.”
“Calan’s voice sounds really funny inside of his mouth.” After trying to talk to him while Calan was holding his SLIT medicine under his tongue for the required 2 minutes.
“Was I in Mama’s tummy? Was Calan in Mama’s tummy? How do you get out of Mama’s tummy? Do you just break it up?”
Going #2 on potty, after a few plops, says: “There’s a whole family of poo coming out!”