Jesse's last basketball game

My son, Jesse, has been sick with a chest infection since last Monday and he had a rough week. He got to a point of being too sick to go to school and he ended up missing 3 days of school. Fortunately, he saw a doctor on Saturday, and we are giving him the right medicines that he needs for treatment.

And while I definitely want to encourage a child to rest and limit activities while being sick, it would seem that Jesse was not going to be able to do that this weekend.

Yesterday was the day the team pictures for his basketball team were being taken and today was their last game. It was not like we could reschedule these things and this was the only time those things were going to happen. And while Jesse was feeling pretty crappy, I knew he had to go to both games. If he didn’t go, he would miss out on both of those things. He might regret that later and also get really upset. My husband didn’t want Jesse to go to either games, but these were the last two – the first with team pictures – so I told him that Jesse had to go despite being sick. (And anyway, I wanted Jesse to learn that sometimes we have to do things even when we are sick. Heck, when I was sick for all of last week, I still got up early in the morning and got the kids to school! Life doesn’t stop just because we get sick!)

I explained to the coach that Jesse was sick so Jesse was allowed to sit out Saturday’s game. However, Jesse was feeling well enough to play today, so he got to play with his team for their last game. I am so glad that he got to play, too. It WAS the last game! His team didn’t win but they still had a good game. And Jesse played pretty well, despite being sick.

So he got to be in the team pictures and he also got to play for his team’s last game. This season has gone by so fast. Jesse did miss a lot of practices and games, unfortunately, because of sickness or because we were out of town, but he had a great time playing basketball. I am glad he has good memories of his first experience of playing basketball. He will cherish those memories for a long time. His teammates were awesome and he got along with everybody. And his coaches were awesome, too!

It’s gonna take me a while to get used to not having to schedule things around his practices and games, and even not taking him to practices or games anymore! But there’s always next season. He is looking forward to playing on a basketball team again. Meanwhile, he’ll be shooting hoops off-season when he gets the chance!

Here are the pictures I took from today’s game. Jesse is #40.

Basketball, at last!

Last year, I signed Jesse up for basketball through Kidsports. Unfortunately, because I didn’t have transportation, Jesse missed the first practice. I was worried about Jesse being cut from the team but I let the coach know ahead of time about the situation and he assured me that would not happen. Jesse was very upset that he missed the first practice but he looked forward to going to the next practice.

Unfortunately, the next practice did not happen too soon. We had some inclemental weather so practice was cancelled. Of course we were upset about this, but looked forward to going after the new year started.

Well, basketball practice in the new year got off to a rough start! We had more severe winter weather this month (though not as bad as in other areas) and basketball practice kept being cancelled.

When the snow fell last week – which interfered with children going to school – I decided not to drive unless I absolutely had to. There was snow and ice everywhere. Also, I am not used to driving a minivan in the winter (it’s only been a year since we got the van!), so I put off driving for a while there. Then the weather lessened in severity and kids got the okay to return to school.

And yesterday was the first day and the first time I drove the minivan in the winter. A lot of streets were cleared of snow, but there were still snowy and icy areas. There was also a lot of slush. I was super cautious when driving yesterday and also drove a little slower than normal. I also made sure there was ample room for stopping. It went well and today was much better because a lot more snow and ice melted away. The temp was actually higher than my age for once – I was happy and pleased to see that it was 45 degrees today! (It had been in the 30s and lower 40s for a while there.) And today we even had some sunshine and it was nice to see some GREEN again! Jesse and I spent time on the driveway today removing patches of snow to make it easier for us to walk on it. I was glad to get rid of it!

I had a good feeling that meant there would be basketball practice today. And guess what: There was! Jesse came home feeling bummed thinking that basketball practice would be cancelled and I smiled and told him that it wasn’t. He was very excited about finally being able to go to basketball practice today!

He had a great time at basketball practice, too. His coach is the same coach he had for the first time he played baseball. Well, he has this coach for the first time he is playing basketball, too! Awesome! (And the coach is a great coach!) So now Jesse is playing basketball. This is the third sport that he is playing! 

I enjoyed watching Jesse at basketball practice. I took some pics at first, of course. I also sent out a couple of tweets. But I soon realized that I needed to not only watch Jesse at practice but also my surroundings, because this happened:

Yep, you gotta watch out for flying basketballs at basketball practice. There was one time a basketball almost came flying down at Jesse but he ducked out of the way.

The first basketball practice was awesome and Jesse gets along with his teammates. We look forward to going again soon and Jesse is very happy to officially be playing basketball now.

Here are pics I took:

Jesse's 9th birthday

Today was Jesse’s 9^th birthday. He was very excited about this day as it drew closer and closer. We were excited, too, and I was especially excited about this being his last year in the single digits. Before today came along, I made plans on what would happen for both at school and at home. I also made arrangements for a party with his friends that will take place this weekend.

As for his birthday falling on a school day, I asked his teachers if they do anything special for students when they have a birthday. They told me that the child’s parent is allowed to bring a treat to the classroom for everybody to enjoy. That was good news! I immediately made plans to get a cookie tray for the occasion and noted how many cookies I would need. I was sure to place that order at the local bakery. The way Jesse and I broke it down, there would be 3 dozen cookies. He told me what flavors he wanted: Chocolate chip, sugar, and snickerdoodle. Unfortunately, the bakery didn’t have snickerdoodle cookies. So I tried to pick something else that I thought they would like. They suggested something called “Chocolate Lovers” cookies and I really thought it was the chocolatey kind. So I said yes I’d order that.

Also before today, I asked Jesse what he would like for breakfast on his birthday. He asked for an omelet. Unfortunately, I am not very good at cooking omelets. I told him that and so he said he’d have scrambled eggs instead. He actually ended up having scrambled eggs and 7-Up for his birthday breakfast.

When the time came, I headed out to the bakery to pick up the order. I already had the chocolate chip and sugar cookies. Now I needed to get the last dozen! Unfortunately, the cookies were not what I had hoped. They were actually more of a chocolate chunk kind of cookie. Here is a pic of them. As you can see by the title, they were still good, but not what we wanted. Fortunately, they also had chocolate chocolate chip cookies, which WAS something we wanted, so I grabbed those, too. I decided we’ll just keep the other cookies for ourselves. (However, the kids don’t like them. Since they came in 2 boxes, I am seriously considering asking a friend if she wants one of the boxes of cookies. They will go bad fast since I usually only eat like one cookie a day.)

Here is the display of cookies in Jesse’s classroom:

And here is Jesse (with friend) getting to select the first cookie:

After that, he and his friend and I each took a package of cookies and handed them out to everyone. I even gave one to the teacher. The kids were all happy and excited to get a cookie and it was sweet how they were all saying thank you for this treat.

Here is Jesse enjoying his cookie:

I stayed until school was over. It was really nice hanging out with his class and meeting everybody. They were such sweet and friendly kids.

Well, after school, Jesse had his gymnastics class, then his dad got him what he requested for his birthday dinner: Arby’s. It’s not so much their food he likes but their chocolate shakes. He LOVES their chocolate shakes and was happy to get one with his dinner tonight.

Then, after dinner, we sang “happy birthday” with his birthday cake (pictured above) then he opened his presents. From Jennifer, he got a CD, The Good Dinosaur movie, and a Minecraft stuffed animal. From his parents, he got a Steven Universe outfit (Steven), binoculars, a musical keyboard, a few T-shirts, a book, and socks. He was SO HAPPY to get the keyboard. He saw what it was as he was tearing off the wrapping paper and he kept excitedly saying “oh my God!” as he finished unwrapping it. LOL It was cute. Then we had cake and ice cream. Then he was able to play with his new toys for a while before getting ready for bed.

I am glad today was a good day for Jesse. He told me he was happy with the presents he got. He had a good birthday and we are looking forward to celebrating his birthday with his friends on Saturday.