Tennis Lessons

Today was a big day for Ethan and Emily. They have been waiting for this day for quite a while. They started tennis lessons today. They have been wanting to take lessons and we got them their own rackets for their 6th birthday. We are always playing tennis in the driveway and they are pretty good at hitting the ball so I felt like they would be ready for lessons now. The coach had them doing different drills before they even started doing anything with their rackets. One thing they did was hold this cone and toss a ball back and forth with their partner and try to catch in in their cone. The coach actually paired Ethan and Emily up together. That was probably NOT the best choice because every time Emily missed catching it, she blamed Ethan's throwing. And if she did catch it, Ethan would say, "That's because I threw it right to you so you could catch it." One thing that was cute, though, was how while they were doing this one of the other kids made a comment about how he didn't know why they were throwing balls into cones. Without skipping a beat with his throwing, he immediately answered, "This is going to help us learn how to hit the ball with our rackets." The coach turned around so fast and said, "ETHAN!! You are ABSOLUTELY right!" I have to admit that that was a pretty proud mommy moment that he was able to figure out the reason behind the drill.

It was pretty adorable watching the kids learn the correct form for their forehand stroke. They all did such a great job. There were a couple of times where Ethan was combining tennis, baseball, and golf all in one sport. It was pretty funny. And Emily, the absolute and total little rule follower wasn't going to do anything or go anywhere unless she was told exactly where she was supposed to be. At one point, the coach forgot to call her name to get in a line, and she just continued to sit along the side of the court, by herself. I saw her sitting there and yelled her name because I thought she might be over there pouting for some reason. But when I called her name, it brought the coach's attention to her and he realized that he forgot to put her in a line and apologized and couldn't believe she was still sitting there where he last put her. Well, she was following the rules and that was where she was told to be until somebody told her anything different. :)

When the lessons were over, the kids were in a great mood and talked about how much fun they had. They will go every Thursday for the next six weeks. The mood changed not long after we got home, though. Emily suddenly had one of her really bad headache episodes this evening very soon after we got home. It was one of her extreme ones where it comes on almost instantly and it makes her lethargic, glassy eyed, and makes her body temperature soar through the roof. She started vomiting and had it coming out her mouth and nose because there was such force behind it. These are the kind that are so hard to handle because they are so sudden. I am just so thankful that we had already gotten home when it happened. She basically passed out on the couch and I wasn't able to wake her up again this evening. She never ate dinner tonight and hasn't had much to drink either. I'll just have to get her up early enough to give her a bath before school tomorrow. The poor thing was just so pitiful tonight.