January 5, 2008 by Joe.

Today was Josh’s fifth day in his bowling league. He went into the night with a 77 average and a team record (he is the only one on his team) of 14 wins and 6 losses. In all fairness, I think five of those losses were his first week there which really shouldn’t have counted since he was bowling in an older age bracket. Oh well, he is five! It doesn’t really matter.

His first game was his best today. He bowled a 95 and beat the other team by 13 points. He bowled an 81 his second game and lost the team points by ten points. He picked up the last point in the team game with the most pins. Both of his games were above his average of 77. He is definitely improving every week thanks to his practicing. He is also very excited because he will be getting his own ball soon. It will be a “Shrek” ball.

I was very proud of Josh today. I never once had to tell him to wait for the person next to him to bowl. I never had to tell him to tell the other bowler good job or better luck next time. I also didn’t have to tell him to say good game to the other bowler at the end of the match. I wish the parents of the other kids in the league would teach their kids to do the same. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The kid Josh was bowling today kept asking me “am I winning?” One of the main reasons I wanted to get Josh into some sort of sporting event was to help teach him good sportsmanship. He definitely has it and we will keep reinforcing it every week.

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January 5, 2008 by Joe.

I originally posted this on my TopCats Bowling page (bowling.dale-family.net) but decided to move it over to Josh’s instead.

12/17/07
Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that Josh is now on a bowling league. His third morning of bowling was this last Saturday. Since he got a late start in the leage, he is bowling all by himself. That is ok though. He is still playing against other kids. It is also a handicap league and he does compete against other teams. His invisible friend bowler is a “vacant” bowler. They are very consistent.

Going into this morning Josh has bowled four games and had a 72 average. His first game today (12/15) was a 100! He bowled two strikes and a couple spares! Him and his invisible bowler beat the other team. His second game was a 72, and this time they tied with the other team.

So far, Josh has won 10 games and lost 5 games. To see how late he is, there are three teams that have around 50 points. I’ll have to create a spreadsheet for Josh now too!

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January 3, 2008 by Tara.

It was the middle of dinner and Joshua had excused himself to refill his cup with water. He returned to the table and proceeded to drink half the water in his cup. He was very impressed with himself and says to me, “Mom, it was this high but now the water is only this high. I drinked a lot! Did you see me? I was really thirsty.” He was beaming with pride.

Before I had the chance to correct him on his “drinked”, my impulsive personality came shining through and I replied, “You’re going to turn into a fish”.

Joe jumped right in, and started making fishy faces as he was drinking his water. I told Josh that Daddy turned into a fish. Joe showed Joshua how fish drink from cups - we were all laughing out loud at how funny Daddy looked and sounded.

All of a sudden, the room got brighter. Joshua turned to me and screams, “Ha! You are teasing! Daddy isn’t really a fish!”

I told Josh he was correct; we were just teasing him.

Joshua confirmed the teasing with a very strong statement: “If God makes you a fish, you’ll always be a fish and if God makes you a person, you’ll always be a person!”

He’s got a point!

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