Check Out the "Soccer Guy"

I'm not allowed to write above Josh's picture for some reason, but I think it's fitting. The first thing you've gotta see is his proud little face and cute little body in his huge soccer uniform. Josh played soccer for the first time this fall, and if you know Josh I don't need to say what he thought about it. If you don't know him, I should tell you that ever since we signed him up in the spring he started talking about when he would get to play soccer in August. And I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the amount of times he asked me, "Is it time for soccer now?" on his first day of practice.

Of course he's little, but that's why I like him playing now. They just play 3 on 3, no goalie, nobody keeps score (okay, Gary does, but supposedly no one does), and the kids just have a blast getting some exercise and feeling like they're "soccer guys." It's definitely a comedy of errors - most of the game is spent trying to get the kids to realize which goal is theirs, but it's cute.

Josh actually liked practice as much or more as the games, since in his words, "Soccer practice is for playing with a lot of balls, and soccer games are for playing with one ball." He actually did pretty well for himself, you can tell when he's out there he's pretty determined to get the ball. He usually got a couple of goals each time, sometimes a few on the other team's goal as well. He also had games where he'd just jog around and do somersaults when he got a chance, and that was fine, too. I always asked him if he was having fun, and he always said yes, so I say success. Here's a picture of him right before a kickoff.

It turned out another boy on his team has the same hair as him, which was cute to see on the field. Josh happens to be the one in front in this picture. (Notice the teamwork? Yeah, there was none. We'll work on it.)

I love this picture because it's so typical of the games. Notice where all the kids are looking and what they are doing . . . then notice where the ball is.

Our next door neighbor was on the team, too, so I tried to get a picture on the last day. Couldn't get them all to look, but at least nobody has their finger in their nose in this one.

The last game was on Halloween, and it was the perfect way to get out of the house after Andrew was born. Josh finished up the season by scoring 3 rather impressive (from my perspective) goals. He also scored one on the other team's goal. He says he scored 4 goals, but as far as net goals he only got 2. So how much credit should we give him? Perplexing problem, but the moral of the story is we all had fun. (Heaven help me if there should ever be a different moral regarding my kids in sports . . .)