How (Not) To Raise an Athlete

Last week, we found ourselves at the sports section of Central Department Store. This is actually the last place that I will go to in a department store since I'm not really big on sports (that's an understatement!), but since I was with mom and dad at that time and we had a couple of hours to chill until Richard picks us up so what the heck? We saw this huge rack filled with balls of different sizes. They had soccer balls, basketballs and plastic balls with cartoon characters on them. Standing beside the rack were a couple of kids playing with the balls -- dribbling them around and stuff. So I asked my daughter Alyannah to try it for herself. Little did I know that what's about to happen will have a big impact in my career as a full-time mommy. Alas! My little girl does not know how to dribble!

My dad suggested that I should buy her a ball para matuto. In my mind, I was thinking: if I buy her a ball does that mean I should teach her how to dribble too? Gosh! Hindi ako marunong! Pwede ba turuan ko na lang sya magluto? Hehe! To get me off the hook, I just told Yan to ask her dad to buy for her -- para si Richard ang magturo! Haha!

So how did this incident have an impact on my career in "mommyness" (imbento ko lang to: this means being a mommy)? You know the saying like mother, like daughter...how the traits of the parents are supposed to somehow be reflected on their children? If this is the case, then my daughter's future in sports is doomed. As my bestfriends Pat and Ria would say about me, I hate P.E to death! Siguradong absent daw ako pag may P.E. I dunno, but I just wasn't born with the sports gene! My siblings though, know at least one sport. My brother Mick knows billiards, my sister Angel can kick ass in basketball (she used to be basketball MVP in highschool!), and my youngest brother Jofe plays basketball too. As for me, I cannot even run to save my life! Do you remember the scene in the movie The Day After Tomorrow, where the people in New York City were trying run away from the big wall of water? If I were in that situation, ako na siguro yung una sa mga nalunod. I'd rather walk briskly and risk drowning with poise and grace, than look silly running. I don't really know how I look like when I run but I figured that since my body's not accustomed to it, I probably look goofy. When my cousins and I were younger, we would play cops and robbers, agawan base and langit lupa in my lola's garden and guess who would always be it? Syempre ako kasi ako pinakamabagal tumakbo.

In spite of that bad childhood memory (don't you just hate it when you're always it? I'd rather play lutu-lutuan.), I still tried to get into sports. In gradeschool, I joined the softball club. In highschool, I joined the volleyball club (but I didn't last a month) and the taekwondo club (here I stayed longer -- too long in fact, until the whole class got promoted to yellow belt and I was the only remaining white belt so I quit). In college...oh, let's just skip that! There's nothing much to say except that I flunked almost all my P.E classes! I mean, who fails P.E? I guess ako lang. Hehe! When I was working in Highlands, I also joined the employees' volleyball tournament (I know, what was I thinking right?) and that ended up in my "If I Could Turn Back Time..." list. I tried so hard to like sports, but sports can't seem to like me back!

Just because I lack athletic skills doesn't mean Alyannah should be like me. So, when we were at Tesco Lotus last weekend, I bought her a new ball. Bahala na si Batman! I'm sure that she will eventually learn some ball handling skills -- I just hope she will not break any of my decors at home! Haha!

I took some photos of Yan playing with her new ball. Sorry if some of the photos are blurred, I haven't finished reading the manual of our new camera yet!

Look at my new Strawberry Shortcake Ball!

Ok, let's see...

Ooopssie!!

Let's try that again...

Oops again!

One more try. This time, with knees bent.

Ayayayy!

Aarrgh!

This is better (applying a technique that her daddy taught her -- bend knees, legs apart)! Wanna ba like Mike! Woohoo!

Oh my goodness!

Mommy, ang kulit naman ng ball!

Watching Yan running after the ball more than dribbling was hilarious! We ended up laughing.

Mommy, I'm tired.

Mag-modelling na lang kaya ako?

Hindi pa sya nakuntento, she put down her ball so that she can...

Dance!!

Oh well, looks like Yan's only hope is her dad -- or her titos. However, based on the photos that you've just seen, mukhang gustong mag-artista na anak ko. Haha! Patay tayo jan!