Leading the Way

Preliminary results of the NCAUSBCA Youth Tournament

The preliminary results of Maddy's tournament came in this morning and Maddy is in first place in his division! The final results will be released in a couple of weeks (why does it take so long?). Any prize money will be deposited into a SMART scholarship account in his name. Woohoo Maddy!

Bowling Prodigy

Maddy got an award patch for a 450 series last weekend

He then proceeded to score a league record 222 game

Maddy in action during the NCAUSBCA tournament

Maddy is turning out to be quite the bowling talent. At the tender young age of 9, he is bowling well above his age group, so much so that coaches and house professionals have remarked that "he is the best left handed talent they have ever seen in his age group for a very long time".

Maddy took part in his first solo USBC sanctioned youth tournament last weekend. The NCAUSBCA (Nation's Capital Area United States Bowling Congress Association) Youth Championship tournament features bowlers from DC, Northern Virginia and Maryland who qualify from their local programs. Maddy qualified first in his Champs division (9-11 years of age).

In his first tournament, he had games of 202, 202 & 157 for a 561 scratch series (853 handicap series) which was more than 240 pins over his average. He has a great chance to win his age group! The results will be released next weekend, we can't to see how he did!

Field Trip to the NSO

Ready to roll

Unlike his dad, Maddy doesn't mind dressing up

Styling!

Maddy has a class field trip to see the National Symphony Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in D.C. this afternoon.

He was pretty excited to go, which came as a surprise to me. A trip to watch the NSO perform doesn't seem like something I'd think a kid his age would look forward to but what do I know?

He wanted to get dressed for the occasion so Mom bought him a blazer and off to school he went. Just before I dropped him off he told me he was a little nervous. When I asked him why, he said he hoped the other kids didn't tease him for the way he was dressed. I told him not to worry about it because girls like a well dressed man, to which he replied, "Dad, EWWWW".

Winter 2012

Hmmm, it's been 5 months since I last updated Maddy's blog. Oka, what a slacker! I'm going to try and update his blog on a more regular basis from now on. It's not like there isn't much to blog about, Maddy has been pretty busy with school, bowling, basketball and cello.

Maddy is still enjoying school and his steadily improving grades are proof of that. His enthusiasm for the cello is fading though. Given the short attention span of kids these days, it's understandable. He wants to join the choir and band next year instead and has expressed the desire to play the tuba.

Really? Where does this kid come up with these ideas?

Maddy's basketball season ends next weekend. He has become quite the rebounder and shot blocker. He is the tallest boy on his team and so his coaches put him at center/power forward but Maddy would prefer to be a point guard. He doesn't think it's fair that the shorter kids get to bring the ball up and do most of the dribbling.

Maddy is also excelling at bowling. He has passed his momma in terms of average and he loves reminding her of it every chance he gets. Our family team has won the last 2 rounds of our Samoan league mostly thanks to Maddy. He had his personal best 224 game a couple of weeks ago!

Maddy now stands at 5'3" tall. I think it's safe to say that he will be slightly taller than BatGran and Papa by the end of the year at the rate he's growing.

Maddy and his mom horsing around

Maddy playing the role of James Madison, 4th President of the USA

Pres. James Madison, Living Museum, 4th Grade

Maddy, at 9 and a half years old

My Son, the Cellist in Training

When asked to choose a musical instrument to learn at school, Maddy passed up on percussion and wind to choose a stringed instrument, the cello.

I would have never chosen the cello, of all instruments, for Maddy but therein lies the beauty of his selection. He chose it and after playing around with it this afternoon, he loves it and since he loves it, we do too.

Thanks to Batgran, he has a Yo-Yo Ma CD to listen to now. For starters, Maddy told us that his music teacher is planning to teach them how to play the theme song from Jaws. How cool is that?

Maddy's looking forward to Friday, when he has music class. His cello case has backpack styled straps so he'll  lug it on the bus and if I know my son, he'll love the extra attention.

Happy Bithday Batgran!

August is birthday month for the Mano'o clan and today is Batgran's turn. Happy birthday Mom! Hopefully this is the last birthday that the Washington, D.C. crew will miss. I hope you get spoiled with some nice chicken wings, rice and potato salad today. Just don't let Sachi cook and everything should turn out good!

Much alofas from all of us in D.C.

Outsmarting His Old Man

Last week, Maddy found out that one of his bowling friends, Charles, got a dollar for every strike and 50 cents for every spare he got during league games and practice as an incentive. It didn't take him long to ask me if we could do the same because we did something similar during the basketball season.

I thought it would be a good way for him to continue to learn the value of money and earn some extra pocket money during the summer so I agreed. Maddy is a miser when it comes to his money. He has no problem spending our money though. I told him if we were going to do this, he would use his own money to buy the things he wanted, like video games, Beyblades, Pokemon cards etc. With visions of the new video games he was about to afford to buy, he quickly agreed.

There was one twist though. I told him that he would owe me 50 cents for every gutter ball he threw.

Our first outing was a practice last week where he threw 5 strikes, 1 spare and 12 gutter balls. It was an 'off' day for him and he wasn't too thrilled when I told him he owed me 50 cents.

Without missing a beat, he walked over to the table, pulled 2 quarters from my wallet and handed them to me saying, "Here you go, Dad".