Our Basketball Star

We don't have the kids participate in many league sports.  It takes a lot of money, desire from them, and most impotantly, time.  (When Matthew was five, he played soccer and they wanted those kids to meet three times a week!  No way!  Chris became his coach and only met for one practice a week and that, coupled with a game every Saturday, was too much in my opinion, for five year olds.)  If I can't get at least two kids involved in something at the same time, we end up finding it's more of a pain to get to practices and games than it's worth, even to the participating child.  It's not just we parents being selfish or lazy;  our kids are young and usually their interest will wane before the two month long season is up, but we require them to finish up the season they started.

Gabe is a different story.  He's been awesome at things like throwing balls since he was a baby.  (I try not to compare him to his brothers, but it was evident even then that he got a bit more of an athletic gene than they did!)  He's been to his brothers' soccer and football games and has wanted to play for most of the years of his life.  When the older boys played flag football last fall, the coaches talked about the upcoming basketball season quite a bit and Gabriel let us know that he really, really wanted to play.  The church that the older boys played football though didn't start letting kids play until they were in first grade, and the older boys did not want to play.  Luckily for Gabe, I found a league that he was old enough for, was pretty inexpensive, and was very conveinant time and location-wise.  Whoo-hoo!

So Gabe started playing basketball two weeks ago at the Schertz YMCA where I attend my Weight Watchers meetings.  Even better, they only meet once a week, and it happens to be directly following my WW meeting every Saturday. 

To make the deal even better, I had signed Leah up for a Mommy & Me tumbling class that met at the same time as Gabe's basketball, but they ended up changing the time for that and it didn't work out.  :o(  But I still am thrilled that I get two activities (WW and basketball) out of one morning and at one place.

And Gabe is doing so well, and most importantly, he is loving it. He sits through my WW meeting for 30 minutes with his Leapster and is ready to play ball when it's over.

Swoosh...nothin' but net!

Gabe had to slide into the back of the line after every turn.  He's all about falling down as much as he can for fun!

At the end of every session, the kids put their hands on their head and get stickers on their hands.  This is one of Gabe's favorite parts of the day!

Leah came with us last week because Anna was sick and wanted all of Daddy's attention.

I'm not sure how long he'll be in the top half of talent on his team because of the whole height issue (or lack there of) that he has, but we'll enjoy it while we can!