The Tomcats

Josiah began his career in team sports today (not counting the tennis lessons he took last summer). Yes, that's right...it's time for youth soccer!!! His team is the Tomcats, and they get to wear cool purple shirts (which is nice because David can actually say "purple" and cannot say "brown" or "black" or "green" or a lot of other colors...and he got a lot of practice saying "purple" today, though when he says it, it sounds more like "burple"). The soccer league Josiah is in is really great--no keeping score, no competition, just having fun and learning about soccer. Now, I'm all for competition in some settings, but I'm learning that Josiah is highly competitive even without anyone else pushing competition on him...so it's nice that this league does not emphasize that!

There was a lot of herd mentality exhibited today--a huge swarm of kids following the ball all over the field. On Josiah's team, there was one boy who didn't do that; he had obviously played soccer before and understood the concept of positions a little more. But everyone else simply ran around in the direction that everyone else was running, and they probably couldn't even see the ball half the time because of all the bodies.

Some positive things about the day...
~ Josiah announced as we got into the van after his game, "Now Saturdays are my favorite day of the week!!!"
~ Coach Miller remarked to me about what a polite kid Josiah is...I did hear Josiah often saying to him, "Excuse me, Coach, my legs are tired" or "Excuse me, Coach, I don't know where to go so I'm going to stay with you" or "Excuse me, Coach, I didn't kick very well today"
~ David had fun being silly on the sidelines...he twirled around in a circle until he fell over dizzy, he did the splits until he plopped down on his padded bottom (thank goodness for thick diapers!), he threw a ball back and forth with somebody's grandfather who was watching the game, he even got to share the team snacks when it was all over :)
~ good sportsmanship and good attitudes were emphasized
~ I got to see several other moms that I knew from Josiah's music lessons
~ it was just plain old fun to watch Josiah play!

A few negatives...
~ I saw Josiah hit kids a few times...I had to pull him aside and make sure he understood that in soccer, we don't hit kids...in football, you do...but today was soccer and not football!
~ after the game, we had team pictures; and by the end of that, David was so exhausted and fussy...he cried and cried when his juice (part of the team snack) was all gone

This isn't really a positive or a negative, just a fact of life--but it was a little tough to try to focus on both Josiah and David. For safety's sake, I had to make sure that David didn't wander away...while also watching Josiah so I could cheer at the right moments (and make sure he didn't push any more kids)...while also trying to take pictures and video...while also trying to be polite and make conversation with the other parents...while also trying to juggle the form for the photos and the money...etc. Most of the time, I feel like I can function well as a mom of two kids, but today felt a little difficult. (Julie, stop laughing...I have no idea how you do it with seven!) :)