Community events, family-style
Attending community events was much different before I had children. First of all, I attended many more of them – and sometimes at a moment’s notice. No need to arrange for childcare or, if it was a “family-friendly” event, to pack a bag in preparation – changing supplies, sippy cups, a “just-in-case” change of clothes, snacks, books, a toy or two, etc. (and of course a wish for good timing, as neither my 3-year-old nor 1-year-old take naps on a regular schedule). No comments yet. You can be the first!
For the Jewish News-sponsored Jewish family event at the Mercury Game on Sept. 13, I thought it would be fun to take the family, as it would be the boys’ first basketball game.
Jewish News had a suite, which was great since the boys didn’t need to stay in their seats. Zachary stood at the edge, looking over the wall at the crowd and the players below and ate his raisins. Jadon practiced walking back and forth along the front row of seats. I didn’t really watch too much of the game – we got there right after half-time and it took me awhile to figure out which players were Phoenix Mercury and which were Los Angeles Sparks. It was cool to be at Sparks’ player and future Hall-of-Famer Lisa Leslie’s final regular season game, even though I had never heard of her before that day.
Next, right before the game ended, we took the elevator down to the basement to the practice court to prepare to hear Mercury Head Coach Corey Gaines talk about his basketball career, including five seasons in Israel. Zachary discovered a box of basketballs and began emptying it. Jadon crawled around the practice court pushing the balls, then chasing them. When people started walking in - apparently the game had ended – I asked Zachary to help me return the balls to the box. We made a game out of it and they all returned home. Then some older kids came in, spotted the balls and started dribbling and trying to throw the balls into the basket (nevermind that the Jewish News booth displaying newspapers, magazines and other materials was about a foot away). Zachary got upset that the other kids were playing with the balls (“It’s clean-up time!”) and Jadon began getting vocal.
As Corey Gaines began talking – which was scheduled to be the highlight of the event and, had I actually been covering it, would have been the focus of my story - we were packing up the strollers and heading out the door, hoping Jadon’s squawking wasn’t disrupting him.
Luckily I was able to read about Gaines’ speech in that week’s issue of Jewish News, since our Staff Writer Josh Sayles was there to cover it.
25 Sep, 2009 >