December 7, 2008

I went to Timothy's first basketball game yesterday. His team got hosed, 34 to 18. The first half was 19 to 6, so they managed to do better in the 2nd half. Timothy played the 2nd and 4th quarter. At half-time I turned to the couple behind me and said "this is way better than t-ball!" They laughed, but it really was.

I'm actually looking forward to next week! First off it goes pretty fast - four 8-minute quarters and the clock only stops for fouls or whatever in the last minute or so.

Second of all, the kids aren't bad. It's 5th and 6th graders and the players have a range of skills and a range of body sizes. The other team had a couple little point guards that were real quick and fun to watch. Our team has 2 tall blonde kids with mops of hair that makes them look like they are running faster than they are, and one shorter stringy blond point guard that is fast but doesn't know how to slow down. He got a fast break away where he got the ball by himself to the right hoop but shot too late so missed and then couldn't stop so rammed his whole body full speed into the wall that is much too close to the out of bounds line but at least padded and fell to the ground.

Timothy is slow and looks like something is wrong with his shoes, but he says they are not uncomfortable. He has a good sense of where the ball is and is not a ball hog, which is contrary to other players! On of the tall blonde kids got an impressive rebound and took off, then passing to one of the other kids that had managed to get most of the way down the court unguarded, but the other kid seemed to only be concentrating on running and forgot there was a ball involved in the game. The pass hit him in the back and went out of bounds.

The fast wiry kid that couldn't stop also didn't know how to pass and just drove to the hoop every time he got the ball. I'm not sure he ever scored.

Timothy's team can't shoot for beans, which was the real reason they lost. Seemed like nothing they put up actually went in, and I don't think they made any of the foul shots they got. The other team was somewhat more skilled, and a little taller, but except for the fact that they could actually shoot and made probably 75% of their foul shots, the teams weren't that unmatched. Timothy only took 3 shots, but made all 3, so he scored a third of his team's points. It was hard not to be excited about that! I sat in the audience, or rather I sat on the floor of the stage that overlooks the gym right under the basket and tried to not get hit with flailing balls, and concentrated on not being one of "those" parents. I clapped politely for the other team, and a little louder for our team. But when that 3rd shot went in, all net, and Timothy looked to find my eyes in the "stands" and I could see that excitement and pride in his face, it was hard not to stand up and scream. I don't think I've ever cried at a basketball game before. He's got a real nice shot. He's not aggressive though, which he really needs to be since he's so freakin' slow. At one point the kid he was guarding mis-dribbled and the ball ended up on the ground. Timothy touched it but the other kid grabbed it and Timothy didn't put up a fight.

The refs were funny too. One was a big ol' round guy that during time outs told long boring refereeing stories to any audience member that made eye contact. I stared at my feet. But whenever he blew the whistle (which was about once per second), he nicely explained to the applicable kid what the violation was for. The other ref was a young fit 20-something that shot hoops himself during time outs and in the latter half of the game played with the 7th and 8th grade kids on the sidelines that were waiting for their game next. He wasn't quite as whistle happy, but still, seeing as they called every travel violation, the whistle blew frequently. The refs also gave tips. The big guy told the kid imbounding it at one point that the clock didn't start until someone made contact, so if it were him he'd roll it to half-court ...

And one more interesting fact - there are two Timothy's on Timothy's team, so he goes by Tim and the other goes by Timothy. Ok anyway, enough of the basketball game.

It's December, which means the kids get a present from the advent calendar every day. Mostly this means a book, a candy, or something I got nearly free at staples over the summer. They take turns opening the present and Jesse isn't really very good at that. Well, he's good at his own turn, but has to be physically restrained in tears when it's Jocelyn's turn, though he does fine when it's Timothy's turn. Anyway, yesterday the present was a little meatier - a karaoke machine that Josh found on clearance at Target. Jocelyn is in love! She spent all of yesterday singing into the mic. At one point she took the CD out and thought she broke it. She came running to find me in heart-broken tears saying she broke it and it was an accident. She was almost inconsolable. I fixed it for her and showed her she could just press stop if she wanted to sing without the music, but she still needed to be hugged for several minutes to calm down. Jesse loves it too and it has space to plug in two mics, but unfortunately only came with one. We have to buy another soon before there is bloodshed.

Another gift this week was a Sleeping Beauty movie (that I got half price of course) and I thought Jocelyn was going to explode with happiness when she saw it. She started freaking out and screaming that she wanted to go to bed and watch it. It was hysterical. And then of course because Jocelyn was so excited, Jesse felt the need to be incredibly excited too.

Jocelyn has become quite a fibber, making up random stories at will. But she also just straight out lies. She wanted some bubbly water so I told her to go ask Timothy to get her some. She announced that Timothy said he wouldn't get her any, which was clearly a lie since she was standing right in front of me and he was in his room so she hadn't even asked him! So I tried to explain to her what a lie was. It went something like this:

Me: A lie is something that is not right, so if I say Daddy is a girl, that's a lie.

Jocelyn: <giggle> But Jocelyn is a girl, that's an of course.

So then I explained that the opposite of a lie is the truth, and we practiced lies vs truths. She still doesn't quite get it, but we're netting there.

Jocelyn had a play date this week - she and Madison went over to Shelby's house to play. When I got home from work, Jocelyn informed me that Shelby's mom doesn't have glasses, she just has eyes. hee hee. I guess Shelby's mom reported that Jocelyn was very well behaved, and Josh said she didn't actually scream when leaving (an improvement from her last play date) but still had to be carried forcibly to the car and therefore Jesse had to walk and when they got to the car and Josh was restraining Jocelyn with one arm while strapping her in with the other, Jesse noticed the play structure in the back yard and took off, which means Josh had to finish strapping Jocelyn and then run across the back yard to grab Jesse up and force him into the car too and then drive home with two PO'd kids.

Morgan went to the annual Lion's Club party this week. Each year the Lion's Club does a holiday party for all the special kids in several towns and gives them each a present. The party was Thursday and Wednesday night it was all Morgan could talk about. It was so cute that he was so excited. He got a little lap top computer type toy, but really he just likes the party. It's kind of surprising but I really think he likes crowds, even if it's hard for him to show that.

Oh, I went to Timothy's winter concert on Tuesday. Orchestra, band, and then chorus. The orchestra and band are awful. The orchestra teacher is a loon. Both take forever and I can't believe I forgot my ear plugs. The set changes between the 3 performances take longer than the actual performances and I also forgot to bring a book - I probably could have finished War and Peace. The chorus, however, is amazing. It's the entire 4th and 5th grade - so no one is chosen for their voice or anything. They sing a variety of holiday songs - both Hanukkah and Christmas (and one about wanting a snow day) - and they sing like angels. The teacher must be amazing. Then of course at the end they have to thank 8 thousand helpers and give them all plants and you want to poke yourself in the eye to cure the boredom, and then you have to file out of the auditorium behind people who seem to make a sport out of stopping in doorways.

I told Timothy I would meet him between the two sets of doors at the entrance. I fought my way to the assigned spot and was waiting when some random kid decided to be the doorman and hold the door open all night. So now I'm standing there freezing my butt off and I see Timothy's head approach the first door, not see me, and turn to go back into the crowd. Ack! Every freakin' concert he does this - spends the next 15 minutes searching for me in the crowd after I already told him where to meet me. If only I had go-go gadget arms I would have reached out and slapped the back of his head. But instead I ran for him shouting his name like a crazy lady. The 4th time he finally heard me and came towards me saying so innocently "where were you? I couldn't find you!" Ack ack!! But I fought the urge to call him an idiot and ask him what he thought "between the 2 doors" meant and mustered as much enthusiasm as I could to compliment his performance.

The truth is the chorus performance really is great, but the rest of the evening is so annoying that it's almost impossible for me to dig out of my sensory dysfunctional state of annoyance to put a smile on my face. But hey, I try my best - that will count for something some day when he remembers this right? RIGHT?!?!

We continue to struggle with Morgan's obsessive eating. His teacher wrote home this week that he had a fit at school because they were out of goldfish and could I send in more. I wrote back that we stopped buying goldfish at home because he eats them so obsessively, and to tell him if he's hungry I'll send in an apple. We're finding that one of the problems is that Jocelyn & Jesse like to *have* food but generally don't eat it and go off to play leaving their snacks mostly untouched, at which point Morgan bats clean-up. Same with any juice or chocolate milk they might set down. So we have Jocelyn and Jesse who barely touch the 25th percentile in weight, and Morgan up over 100th. Oy.

We found out last night that there is a game Morgan and Timothy can play together and both enjoy - wrestling! A pretty even weight match, and for skills Timothy wins hands down, but Morgan just likes the activity and also the weight pressure. So we taught Timothy that when Morgan says "all done" it's like the bell ringing and he has to back off until Morgan asks for more, and then he can go back to it. It worked out nicely and they probably wrestled for an hour (with no crying! what's that about?! haha) and now every time Morgan sees Timothy, he attacks him and wants to play more.

It was time for report cards this week and Timothy's was quite good as usual. Surprisingly, he got an A in spelling (the scale is E-/E/E+ and then A if they are at the next grade level). Not surprisingly, an E- in geography (never my best subject either, and one of the few Cs I got in college). In math he was dinged for not showing his work - another thing we have in common. Morgan gets a regular report card where they score areas where he is doing this with his class, and then an IEP update where he scored either S for satisfactory or NI for not introduced. No Us for unsatisfactory but also no Ms for mastery. But all in all a good marking period for each.