Highlights
- School, plus Basketball and Soccer seasons
- Halloween!
Calan
After starting in late September, we had basketball and soccer practices consistently each week this month. It was nice creating the routine with the boys, with Monday basketball practices and Tuesday soccer practices. Then, the whole family could join up for basketball games, held mostly on Friday nights at the Y. That said, with Tuesday night violin group rehearsals every other week, Tuesday could get pretty long for sure, especially when you factor in Calan’s workshops at River Oaks in Westlake Village all morning. Needless to say, everyone did pretty well.
While Calan handled the busy routines each week and was pretty enthusiastic about his organized team sports, we did come up against a couple of challenges with basketball and soccer. When it came time to playing in a game, Calan was pretty uneasy about it. As his parents, who passed onto him whatever set of genetics we were blessed with, we completely understood his feelings of apprehension. Playing is fun, but come game-time it’s like you’re performing, and you feel as if you need to match the skills of the other kids and even the coaches to participate. You’d rather just play around and enjoy the activity of the sport instead of trying to produce all the skills and knowledge needed to compete. Those are two different things. Calan said it best one day after basketball practice when another kid asked if he wanted to play a game of “knockout”, which they had just played with the coach in practice. Calan said, “No thanks, I just wanna shoot around.”
Calan was able to work through soccer scrimmages though as Dada hung out with him during one practice (carrying Evan the entire time, no less!). What also made the difference was playing an in-practice game called “sharks and minnows”. Calan was famailiar with this as we’d played it alittle with Josiah when we prepared for the soccer season. He enjoyed the sharks, and mostly made the connection that the same things you do in that fun, friendly game were the same things you did in a scrimmage. In the end, he found it comfortable enough to trot around the soccer field, chasing the group of kids kicking the ball. If the ball came his way, he was happy to just pass it along. It was quite an improvement though from running off the field with tears in his eyes from practice in his second time out. Oh, one last incentive that helped him was Dada working in that he could go to Wendy’s after each practice for some chicken nuggets – a reward for sticking it out in practice and realizing that he actually does like soccer. We’re glad we chose a more low-key program called “Kids Love Soccer” compared to some of the other more competitive ones out there, even at this age. It ended up being just right for Calan to have the opportunity to grow and overcome his fears.
Basketball was very similar. The practices were fine, but game nights on the indoor courts didn’t provide him the most comfort. We figured out pretty quickly though that if Mama stays right by his side (to help him), he wants to keep it that way and not be separated…thus, not get in the game. But if Mama isn’t nearby then we are able to almost trick him into playing in the game. For example, Coach Tim merely told Calan to stand on the circles imprinted on the court where defensive players can stand to block offensive players. Calan obliged, not realizing that in doing so the game was underway. All he had to do was put up his arms, and he was “playing in a game”. We also found a decent basketball hoop for the backyard on Craigslist and got him a new basketball (a bigger one). This allowed Calan to practice at home almost every day for a while, which always helps to build confidence in new abilities.
It’s been fun to watch him grow in the sense that he can get out there and do something he was once afraid of; but more importantly use the new confidence to further his enjoyment of it. In basketball, he was able to dribble the ball along the court and even take some shots. Again, a huge stride from where we first started! We also made sure to keep these experiences about him and not us, which we think helped him break through the momentary discomforts more easily. You can see how some parents easily turn these situations into their issue, resulting in being tough and pushing their child to just do it. The last thing we wanted was Calan to resent something he naturally liked. He may not be the biggest, quickest and most skilled kid out there, but it brings a smile to our faces and hearts to see him having fun with these sports and getting better and better.
Halloween
This year’s Halloween was just right; and mostly uneventful except for the trick-or-treating that Calan really looked forward to. Our friend Dea, Louis and their son Beni moved away this summer so our tradition of meeting up with them came to an end. As darkness settled in the neighborhood though, Josiah and his family and some of their friends stopped by the house, and we all went around the neighborhood. Calan wore his witch (warlock) costume well, and Evan the penguin strolled with his content-neutral demeanor around the streets. In the end, the group dwindled and soon we found ourselves walking back home and capped the night off by looking through and playing with the loot the Magic Jack-o’-lantern had provided Calan.
Some notable quotes this month:
“I thought just wild animals lived in Asia… How many people live there? ” – after looking at the web stats spreadsheet Dada was working on for Semtech where it shows web visits by global region.
Calan: “You just close your eyes and when you open them again it’s morning” – when talking about sleeping through the night. The best part is that he named this as a “zap night” because you “zap into the morning”.
“I’m thankful for my rock, and I’m thankful for you because you do lots of fun things with me” – talking to Dada (melting his heart in the process), as he expressed his thoughts after talking about being thankful for things at school.
Evan
One of the things that stood out this month with Evan was his social skills. Specifically, it seems wherever we take him (the park, the store, Calan’s practices), one grown-up or another becomes enamored with the mini-person toddling around. He also often approaches people eagerly, and then the passersby instantly light up and smile. They invariably offer tons of positive remarks about how cute and adorable he is. I think we just run into a lot of nice people (a testament to the area we live in perhaps), but we certainly won’t disagree with the nice pleasantries given to our sweet little guy. Evan seems to like the attention, but he appears more curious without reservations more than anything. We started calling him our “little extrovert of the family.”
Evan also seems to love dogs, especially small ones. If we’re out, and a dog owner comes within 50 feet of us, he’s on his way over, usually following the dog for a minute. Many times, the dog walker will stop so the little guys can say hi. So far, the dogs have been pretty relaxed and allow Evan to gently pet them. He’s tentative but very curious about them, and of course the dogs love the affection. It’s a nice win-win exchange when this happens. It makes us think for a split second about how nice it’d be for the boys to have a pet…but then reality sets in. In due time…
Somewhere in mid-October Evan’s verbal communication started coming out more than it has before. We have no idea what he’s talking about or trying to tell us, but he’ll utter a wide variety of syllables at any given time. It’s only natural at this age, but we still wish we could understand him. He seems content enough not to have anyone actually respond to whatever it is he’s trying to tell us.
Despite the non-nonsensical language he’s progressing with, Evan is flirting more with some actual words. We talk about “ears” a lot because he likes to feel your ears when cuddling or drinking a bottle with you sometimes. So, he’ll utter the word ears. He also tried a “hi” here and there after we started saying it to him more frequently for a few days. It kind of goes away though if we stop, which is interesting. Our favorite word this month though is how he says “stars.” Stars seem to be in every other baby or small children’s book. We also light his room up with his turtle star light at night, so whenever he sees stars in books or at night, he gestures to them and says his version of “stars”. It’s most precious when we’re about to put him to bed and he looks at all the stars filling his room and whispers and draws the word out like “staaaaaaaaaw(s)”.
Finally, another physical trait he’s developing is his throwing arm…when it has food in it. We’re still trying to figure out the correlation as it doesn’t seem to necessarily be when he’s full, or not in love with the type of food in front of him, but he definitely means to do it when he does. Sometimes, if we’re not right there, we’ll come back to his chair only to find countless pieces of food strewn across the floor. It’s not unlikely to be bombarded by O’s cereal zipping out of his hands at breakfast either. So…we’re learning that we may have to take a step backwards in his finger food and also only give him one or two pieces at a time, otherwise he’ll be learning the hard way that food on floor means less food in belly.