Saturday, October 28, 2006

Tough guy

We signed Matthew up for an indoor soccer "league" that started a month ago. It's for 4 and 5 year olds, and Matthew's team is probably the youngest in the league. "We're the team the makes the other kids feel good about themselves," one mom told me. But the kids have fun running after the ball and kicking it so it's all good.

The kids mostly have fun. Matthew was the King of Tears for the first 2 games, collapsing in a heap when he trips, or gets jostled in the croud of 4-foot bodies chasing the ball, or when he doesn't get to kick the ball enough, or when he does kick the ball but doesn't score a goal... He's averaged about a minute between being subbed in and being subbed out in tears. Maybe he's just too young.

Last week, though, Rachel and I talked to him about how big boys are Tough. He was impressed. "I going be tough," he vowed. And today he was a lot better; he only came off once, too frustrated to continue. It was even more lopsided than usual today; it was something like 8 or 9 goals to 1. But Matthew went back in and lasted until the end of the game, the first time we haven't had to go home early.

No comments: