I am coming to the end of a chaotic week. When you have children, you need to sacrifice your free time. The laundry is piling up around me and the soap scum in the shower is looming. Meals have been ordered or picked up at Sobeys all week. I don't know who took the dog out last. But to hell with it all. I have birthday parties to plan, science fair supplies to buy and basketball tournaments to deal with.
My youngest, Colleen, turned 10 years old this week. She has moved into the 'tween' years. Two weeks ago, I booked a dance studio for her party and designed invitations for her to distribute. She labored over whom she should invite but finally made her choices. Unfortunately, I forgot about the over-booked schedules of her classmates. When you are dealing with cheerleaders, basketball players, soccer stars and dancers, you need to consult with their team websites to check out what possible competitions might be getting in the way of having a birthday party. Times sure have changed! Yup, when I was a kid, nothing would get in the way of free cake and treat bags! I didn't even care if I knew the birthday girl or boy...I would never say no to a party!
But the kids today are different. Life is competitive and they don't want to miss an opportunity to shine even if it means missing free food and gifts. On Thursday, we decided to postpone the party. I negotiated with the dance studio and stayed up until eleven-thirty that night to make new invitations for Colleen to give to her friends the next day. So of course she forgot to hand then out. I then spent a lot of time figuring out how to get in touch with the parents of kids I don't know. This was not an easy task but no one showed up on the wrong day so I am relieved. Now, let's hope that parents are kind enough to honor the RSVP on the new invitations...if Colleen remembers to hand them out.
To be honest, postponing the event was a relief. Colleen also had a four day basketball tournament that we were trying to work around. This was a big deal for her. She joined basketball late in the year. As Colleen would tell you, I was forcing her to take martial arts and it caused a conflict with the basketball schedule. After much lamenting about how "lame" and "boring" tae kwan do was, I caved and let her start basketball in November. The only problem was that the club rules prevented her from playing in regular season games. But her friend Amie was keen on having her join so she practiced three hours a week with the team and made some new friends. This made me proud because most kids would say 'no thanks' to practicing hard and not having the glory of competing.
The regular season ended three weeks ago so this week marked her debut in a real game and my first look at league basketball. The girls in her division were all between eight and ten years old. They came in many shapes and sizes and well equipped with many family members. I had the opportunity to see these lovely girls when they weren't on the court. They were silly and sweet. They liked glitter makeup and hairbands. They wore crazy socks and carried cute stuffed animals. They were typical girls...until game time.
Suddenly, they were in it to win it. They were grabbing arms and legs and rolling around on the floor more than the dust bunnies in my closet. There were whistles blowing and hands flailing for a very, very long time. I was quite taken aback at the aggressive behavior I was witnessing. I admit that I was never good at team sports. I always lacked the coordination needed and quite frankly, wasn't keen on sweating and dressing in unflattering uniforms. But I do remember a few things about basketball and this seemed more like indoor rugby. These girls were willing to do anything they could to steal the ball. They drew fouls and some came close to being put out of the game.
It was evident that Colleen was still learning the game. She looked a bit lost at times. It took the coach a few times screaming ”Stay out of the key!!!!" before she realized that Colleen had no idea what that was. But my girl didn't give up. She played as hard as she could. She stole the ball and even scored a few baskets. She posted the first three points of their fourth game and even earned a player of the game award. She had a few breakaways but missed her lay ups. She sunk four foul shots and managed to only have two fouls against her in five games. The effort her team put forth took them to the championship game!
This morning she woke up sick. With a 100.8 degree fever and sore throat she lamented to me "I need to play for the championship, Mom". So pumped up on Tylenol, protein shakes, oranges and water, she played. She may not have had her best game, but she wasn't going to let her team down. It looked as if their opponents were going to run away with the win but our little Celtics fought back and came within two points! In those last thirty seconds, there were a lot of crazy parents in the elementary school gym screaming "Shoot the ball!".... and there may be a strong argument that I made the top ten list of crazy.
But it was not to be. The game ended and they got their silver medals and they congratulated the other team. They took team pictures and they may have cried a tear or two. But then they hugged each other and picked up their stuffed toys and dolls and were little girls again. Colleen snuggled up in the back seat on the way home and critiqued her performance. Maybe next year.....
We got home at 3:30 and she has been in bed ever since. Her job is done and now she has allowed herself to give in to the nasty virus. She is cuddled up with her unicorn pillow pal (a birthday gift from Daddy) and her magic bag. She is ready to be my baby again, letting me hug her and bring her chicken soup and crackers and juice and Tylenol. She is sugar and spice and everything nice...with her basketball under her covers.
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