Isabella learning to ride a bike

Here's a video of me teaching Isabella to ride a bike Aug 2010 at 4 years old. My wife taped this with the video camera sideways. Not sure why;-)

cycling babies

Here are my 2 oldest kids are on thier bikes. My daughter had recently learned to turn around without falling, which she does in this video. Today she also learned to slow down nice and easy rather than slamming on her brakes as hard as she could and skidding and crashing to a stop.

Cody's kryptonite

Cody seems to be an athletic kid. What seems to make him able to do physical activities well is his heart & determination, he just refuses to give up. I think his secret to athleticism is that he is smart, picks things up easily as he does them, & learns by seeing others do them as well.

That being said I've found his kryptonite. Jumping on 1 leg. No matter how hard he tries that skill simply eludes him.

jump boy jump!

Here they are teaching my son to dance. I'm telling ya, this is pretty basic stuff they're teaching. My boy could handle the next level up easily, but as long as he's having fun that's all that matters right?

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more mouse games

Here's another video of Cody playing mouse in Ballet

Cody's ballet

When my daughter turned 5 years old I started taking her to ballet. During her ballet classes parents and family are not able to watch. Once a month the ballet school has open practices that family & friends may watch. After the 1st open practice my oldest son Cody James developed a real love for ballet. Every day for months he asked if he could dance in class with his big sister. I tried to convince him to get into t-ball or soccer, but he stuck to his guns and said he wanted to dance. By the 2nd open ballet practice my son Cody James started mimicking what he saw his sisters ballet class doing. The girls in that class were 2-3 years older than my boy & had been practicing weekly for 2 months, yet after only 45 minutes my son was able to do every move they were doing. My wife & I signed my son up that day for his own lessons. Unfortunately the school wont let Cody practice with the 4 & 5 year olds even though he has the focus, listening skills, & talent to be able to do well in the older kids class easily. The class we have him in now is mostly just play time where they learn to listen to the instructor, learn to listen to rhythm & beat of music, & what they call creative dance. Regardless of whether Cody could handle a higher level class or not he doesn't complain, as a matter of a fact he asks every single day if he can go to dance! After his 1st day of wrestling I asked if he enjoyed wrestling, he said he did, he got quiet for a bit, then asked, "Daddy, can I still do dance please?". He now wrestles Mon-Thu & dance on Fridays. He loves dance with all of his heart, & if he loves it, then I love it.

Here's a video of him playing house mouse.

wrestling warm up pictures

these pictures are from my sons 2nd week in wrestling. You can see coach Johny Tapia & coach Carlos in the back of the room. Each day he's making huge progress. His form is already great & he's started getting quite a few moves in his arsenal. He's learning so much faster than I dreamed he would. Most important is he's having fun!




Here's a picture of my boys warming up. The wrestling coach lets my youngest son Rion on the mats when they are stretching. Rion is 17 months old, he tries really hard to do exactly what all the bigger kids are doing. Another future wrestler?





Here's a picture of my son doing a back bridge in warm up. He couldn't do these his 1st few practices. He's a little better now. Next I'll be working with him to move around from the back bridge like the big kids do.

taking the back

Here my son is trying to break bad habits. I taught him the basic jiu jitsu positions. Here is is trying to keep in the rear mount, in jiu jitsu that's a good thing, in wrestling that's not a good thing.

reversals

Here's a video of my son learning reverals.

wrestling on his 1st day

Here's a video of my son wrestling.

learning wrestling stances

Here's a video of my boy learning wrestling stances.

Cody did amazing his 1st day of wrestling with the Santa Fe Patriots! He paid attention the entire time, took directions well & wrestled hard the entire practice even against a boy who had 25 pounds & 1.5 years on him. After watching him even his Mommy is excited about him wrestling at only 3 years of age. If there's enough 3 & 4 year olds who register he'll have his 1st tournament here in Santa Fe next Saturday. If there aren't enough three & four year olds they'll want to have him wrestle against 5 & 6 year old kids as close in weight as they can find to him, which is 37 pounds. I hate to be the frightened parent here, but if there aren't enough kids in his division I won't let him compete yet, I don't want him to get hurt his first week into wrestling & become discouraged. It would be different if he was experienced. If he had a few months of practicing I may feel differently, I feel wrestling kids that much loder than him with absolutely no experience would be asking to much & be dangerous for him. From here on out he'll be practicing 4 days a week year round. Think about it, by the time he's wrestling as a senior in high school he'll have 14 years experience!!

1st full contact wrestling

Here's a video of my son 1st full contact wrestling. He really seems to love this
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1st day of wrestling

Here's a video of my son at 3 years 7 months old warming up for his 1st wrestling practice with the Santa Fe Patriots!

The Santa Fe Patriots

I've been dreaming about getting my oldest son into wrestling since he was born but I assumed wrestling teams didn't allow kids on their team until they are close to mid school age. I'd heard the Santa Fe Patriots had one of the best wrestling programs in the state and because I'm slightly OCD I contacted them under the assumption I'd be told he could start in 5 years or so. I found out the program here in Santa Fe starts their kids out at 3. I'm stoked, my boy is 3.5! I could have had him start wrestling tomorrow night, but I desperately want to be there for his 1st practice & I work tomorrow night. So his 1st day of wrestling will be on Monday!!!! Man am I excited! I'll keep you posted on how it goes!!!

wrestling with bigger kids

after wrestling practice the wrestling team weighs in. My son weighed in at 32 pounds. The boy he's wrestling here weighs 67 pounds and is 5.5 years old.