February 07

She Shoots, She Scores!

Autumn made her first basket in her game last Saturday. She has improved so much over the past few games. I think she had been a bit intimidated initially, as she was one of the new girls, and some of the others had played last year already. The few times she had been passed to up to that point, she would usually look right away for someone else to pass to. Granted, the girls are 10 years old, and usually will take it (or try to) coast-to-coast in an effort to score. But on Saturday, Autumn had the ball tossed to her in the key. She was about 5 feet out on the right side. She launched it up there, hit the backboard, and it bounced around tantilizingly a few times before dropping through. LeAnn and I were holding our breath and crossing our fingers. ;) We yelled excitedly when it went through. It was so fun to see her give a shy smile and high five one of the other players on her way back down the court. It was a happy day!

February 02

The Birds and the "Cows"

 
Quote
Wired 15.02: START
This was an article that I was reading in the hard copy magazine of "Wired" which I subscribe to. Our family was all in the living room after FHE a couple of weeks ago when I started reading this. The article was titled "Breast vs. Bottle". It is quite a common topic of discussion-- until you get kids involved! Im sure they wouldnt have noticed anything unusual until Autumn saw the picture accompanying the article. It had a pic of two drawn images of boxing gloves, one with a bottle nipple on top, the other with the other kind of nipple on top. It seemed quite silly until Autumn asked me what they were supposed to be. After some quick reflection and glancing over at LeAnn to see if she would be able to back me up, I endeavored to explain. As I was talking Autumn through it a bit, Austin had been eavesdropping and came over to see the picture. Now I was in trouble! It was one thing to talk about this matter with Autumn, who is turning 10 this month, and would likely have a better understanding of the topic-- and a whole other thing to break it down for a 7 year old boy. *Yikes!* So I went on explaining that all of our kids nursed from their mother. Austin was quite repulsed by this, of course. I tried to explain it by comparing it to a cows udders-- you know how baby cows drink milk from the mother cow, etc.  Then he said something like this, "You mean babies drink milk from their moms big things up here?"--(while making a cupping formation with two of his hands by his chest) "GROSS!" I recall that I kept looking over at LeAnn for support, but she seemed to be enjoying my discomfort.
That was just the beginning of the topic. It gets much weirder. The next evening while Autumn and LeAnn were off at basketball practice,  and Austin had just gotten out of the shower. He comes walking into my bedroom with his towel on. Then he says: "Dad, so you are telling me that when I get thirsty and want a drink of milk, I can just reach down and do this?" He proceeds to reach down by his chest and grab his nipple and tries to stretch his mouth down by it. *HOLY COW*
I was incredulous and almost speechless. After recovering and picking my jaw off the ground, I tried to explain that only mothers can give milk. It doesnt work that way for guys. "But why not" he says. "IT JUST DOESNT! --Please go and get dressed" (Im starting to fall into evasive maneuvers now.) Im still flustered thinking about it even now. I am going to take my "right to remain silent" in these matters until he is eighteen. Its quite scary to see these kids growing up-- and until they do, Im planning on deflecting all other "birds and the cows" questions to their mother!