Bobby is a hoopster

While Robb is coaching Emmy and her team I am attempting to help Bobby.  He is the littlest one out on the court but he sure works hard.  He has a hard time paying attention for an hour and so sometimes my work is simply keeping him focused on listening but I also pass the ball with him and this week I taught him how to shoot.  That little guy got the ball up there from each side of the hoop and from the directly in front and made 3 baskets.  He (and I) were SO EXCITED.  His coach even said..."Bobby, who are you today making all these baskets?"  He yelled over to me - "Mom, I made the basket because I was paying attention!"  As I stated before, mostly I am telling him to pay attention to his coach and so this has become our mantra in basketball.  The next time up he didn't make the basket and he yelled over to me "Mom, you forgot to tell me how far down to bend"  I guess it was all my fault and so I promised to give him more direction for his next turn to shoot.  He had been squatting so low to the ground that all his energy was spent by the time he was jumping so I had taught him to not squat so far and I would direct him by saying lower or too low until he was positioned for success and ready to shoot.  We had fun and it is great to have the special time with Bobby.  He played in his first game last weekend and I took a few pics.

Play dates

Emmy had her BFF Lauren over for a play date yesterday.  The girls and I baked cookies (and ate them) in her easy bake oven and then they played dress up, shopkins, dolls and just had a great time.  Bobby invited his cousin Mason over.  They played video games together, watched transformers and when Mason decided he didn't want to play with Bobby or the girls Bobby then played with the girls.  He plays with a lot of girls that are his friends at school and Emmy is used to him joining in so Robb and I watched them play that Bobby was the hero saving the girls, then he was the bad guy trying to catch the girls......there was a lot of screaming and roaring.  Every once in a while Mason would join in and it was funny to see what they came up with.  At one point Mason was "mind controlling" Bobby to be a bad guy but the girls wanted Bobby to resist so he could be their hero again.  It was a fun, noisy time but I think every kid enjoyed it.  Sometimes Emmy can be very demanding on her brother and she started yelling at him.  Robb intervened and asked that Emmy be nicer to her little brother.  Lauren said, "Yes, Emmy be nice to Bobby he is just a kid"  and when Robb thanked her she told him that she is very good at solving problems.  We also had more basketball games this past weekend.  Bobby's first game and he probably spent more time running over to say things to me then actually playing in his game.  Both kids are improving their skills, getting great exercise and enjoying their time.  It is fun to watch them out there working hard.  Last night when Bobby and I are doing prayers he prayed for me.  I asked him why are you so sweet and always remember to pray for me?  He told me it is because I am the most important person to him and he loves me.  I have the sweetest little people that I get to call my kids.

My awesome kids

Bobby was invited to a birthday party today.  He was so excited to get started playing on the inflatables there that when I told him he had to go poddy first he ran into the bathroom and quickly went....with the door wide open at the Party Pit.  Everyone got a show of his little booty.  Robb told me that when he picked Bobby up that another mom said her little daughter loves to play with Bobby at school because he is the funniest boy in class.  The mom of the birthday girl told me she loves to talk with Bobby because he always is so excited about what he has to say.  When I asked him tonight during prayers what he loved the most about the day he told me that it was bringing a toy snake home from the party for his sister.  That is the truth because when I called Robb and Bobby on their way home from the party Bobby only wanted to have me give the phone to Emmy so he could tell her what he had gotten for her.  When we all got home later it was the first thing he did....run to give that snake to Emmy.  That boy is such a sweetheart. 

Emmy had her first basketball game.  She played hard and had a big smile on her face most of the game.  She didn't make any baskets but dribbled, played defense, passed and mostly cheered for all her teammates.  She has improved a lot and I was proud of what a great attitude she had.  She overheard me tell her dad that Emmy is so great at cheering on her teammates that I worry she'll like cheerleading more than sports and she said, "Cheerleading, I want to do that, I love that!"  Oh boy....that is one thing I know nothing about.  Later tonight during prayers she was telling me how much she loves me (this is an hourly occurrence with Emmy since she is constantly telling me she loves me and wanting affection).  I think I've trained this into her since I love to show her how much I love her as well.  I told her that if my heart was just an empty shape of a heart and then I would only just think about her it would glow blue like the dragon in the movie we had just watched.  She told me her heart does the same for me but glows PINK her favorite color.

Springtime fun

Basketball continued this week.  Robb told me that Emmy (my little perfectionist) gets frustrated when she can't quite get the hang of basketball skills her team is working on.  Bobby is literally a comedic routine out there on the court.  He is in constant motion and is very friendly and outgoing to his team.  He tried to follow directions but I often have to coax him back on the court in the right direction as he tends to wander.  The kids were told to partner up and when all the Pre-K aged kids were partnered Bobby was left without one so the coach's son (who is about 13) agreed to partner with Bobby (who is the youngest one out there).  I wondered how this would go since the kids was twice Bobby's size.  Sure enough the first bounce pass the kid threw at Bobby smacked him square in the face.  That had to have hurt and Bobby looked like he might cry....but he didn't.  He told me he was very tough and then started bounce passing with his partner (who decided to take it easy on Bobby and threw with a lot less force after that).  When I bounce passed with Bobby he would laugh and giggle every time he caught the pass.  It was very sweet.  He also takes numerous breaks to shout to me watching near by - "Mommy I love you!" and to come over to give me kisses.  Later on he was told to play defense and guard his huge partner.  He did his job and stayed on that boy like his shadow.  It was so funny to watch him attempt to guard the boy and as you can see from the pictures the bigger boy was largely unaffected by Bobby's guarding skills.

Last weekend on Saturday we had a great day of outdoor fun.  I started the day riding in the GABR charity event.  1000 riders and I placed 3rd.....men and women combined.  So that felt pretty good!  I beat all my students who were riding on a team so this old woman still has some skills.  We went to the park later on and Bobby pretended that he was a transformer on the playground.  Emmy is a really great climber and she makes new friends easily.  Bobby almost got into a fight because he felt that some little girl was picking on Emmy.  We of course got frozen yogurt later on.

Jungle Rumble

Last night Emmy had Jungle Rumble at school which was an event the kindergartners and parents are invited for where we took turns with the three different classes reading books, playing games and eating a snack.  The kids also sang a few songs for us.  One song had a part where each child sang along telling us what favorite animal was looking at them.  Together the class would sing, "Deep in the jungle what do you see?" then each child had a turn singing, "I see a______looking at me" and they would choose what animal was looking at them.  Emmy had the last turn and though her classmates all chose lions, tigers, snakes, etc she decided to fill in the blank with "I see my parents and my best friend looking at me" as she looked over our way.  It is pretty sweet that she sang about Robb and I even though that technically wasn't the directions.  We were very proud of our sweet, smart little person and I know she had a great time showing us around and spending time with us.

Mommy for show and share?

Bobby came up to my bed to snuggle with me around 6:30 this morning while Robb was in the shower.  He and I talked about all kinds of things as we cuddled but the most amusing to me was when he asked me how to spell mommy.  I spelled it for him and then he explained that he wanted to know what letter mommy started with because on M day at school he plans to bring me to show and share.  He told me that he will allow me to be shared with his friends but I should not worry because he will make his friends wash their hands so they won't get their germs all over me.  I told him I really appreciated this and he said that this way I wouldn't get sick from his friends at school.  My boy is so cute and funny.

Mommy's day off with kids and basketball time!

I had Monday off and so the kids and I went to Barnes and Noble to claim their free birthday treats.  Bobby picked a vanilla cupcake (he mostly ate the frosting) and Emmy a triple chocolate chunk cookie.  Then later on that night we started basketball practice.  Bobby is with the PreK group and he mostly break danced on the floor and ran around kicking and laying on top of the ball.  I stepped in to help him with the passing/catching drills.  He had no problem claiming a partner, he is very outgoing and even when he did things wrong or didn't follow directions at all  he was laughing and had a big smile on his face.  He did tell me he was going to "dunk the ball so hard and then say BOOYA!" but that in reality didn't happen.  While I coached our Bobby Robb got delegated the job of her team coach along with another dad.  Emmy took basketball a lot more seriously and was frustrated when she couldn't do things exactly right.  I tried to teach her to dribble before I left to help Bobby and was surprised to discover that it is actually very hard to explain basic bball skills.  New found respect and appreciation for my father and all of the many hours he spent teaching me these things!  I told her to not slap at the ball but to use her fingertips....she literally only used the tips of her finger to try to dribble then I said no, no use the pads instead but she didn't know what the pads of her fingers were.  We eventually got on the same page.  Robb is a much more patient coach for this team I think and I will stick to keeping Bobby in line until Emmy is ready for the "spin move."

Happy 6th Birthday to Emerson!

Emerson wanted to celebrate her 6th birthday at the gymnastics academy and a good time was had by all.  The kids played hard, ate cupcakes and then sang and open presents.  Emmy got lots of great gifts from her friends and it was fun to watch her play with the many school and daycare friends as well as her cousins.  Robb and I were pretty exhausted when it was over but we know that Emmy had a great day!