Midget Soccer

Anthony was the one who coined the phrase "midget soccer" in regards to Eric's soccer practices and games. On one hand, it sounds mean, but on the other hand, Anthony IS quite a bit taller than the kids on Eric's soccer team. Anthony started out helping Patrick coach during the practices, but recently, he has been working on his college applications and his homework. Hopefully he'll be able to send in some applications by next week.

I took this first photo this past weekend. Eric was goofing around as usual. I was surprised, however, that he seemed more animated as a whole. He wasn't just picking up trash or weeds from the soccer field. He was actually running after the ball. I could actually cheer "Go, Eric" as he was running after the ball. He has more aggressive members on his team, and his main goal seemed to be to kick the ball out of bounds. This worked fine when he was on defense, but not so well when his team was trying to score and he kicked that ball out of bounds. During Saturday's game, he even scored...for the other team. Patrick said that was the strongest, hardest kick he had given, but unfortunately it was for the other team. Oh well.

The wonderful thing about "midget soccer" is that no matter who is ahead, all the kids, at least on Eric's team, seem to be happy. They seem to all enjoy just being out there, running around, and kicking the ball. It was really cold on Sunday, when I took this picture, so Eric was wearing long sleeves under his uniform. The long sleeves gave him something to play with. The other kids were all running out there almost oblivious to the cold wind blowing on them, except when they were sitting on the bench. They won both games this weekend.

I have to share one funny story from this past weekend about what happened during Alex's soccer game. Alex had a soccer game at 9am on Sunday. Eric had his game at 1pm. Since Anthony was out of town on the field trip, we couldn't leave Eric home with Natalie, although we let Natalie stay home by herself. All I could get him to wear over his clothes was a windbreaker, with the temperatures in the 40s with a strong, cold wind. I told him that I was going to bring a big blanket with us to Alex's game "just in case" Eric needed something warmer. He replied, "It's okay. I'm wearing a jacket and it's zipped up." He thought he would be protected from the cold because his flimsy jacket was zipped up?!!

When we got to the soccer field, I tried to convince Eric to stay in the car and watch the game from the car. He didn't want to. He wanted to sit under the trees on the park benches like we usually do. Well, the park benches were all sectioned off because of the pumpkin patch they are planning to put in this week, so I brought out two folding chairs, my camera bag, the big blanket, and my purse. After lugging that out there and setting up the chairs, Eric starts looking at me unfolding the blanket so I could wrap it around myself, and he says, "Mama, can I share the blanket with you?" I reply, "Of course, Eric!" After a little while under the blanket and still being cold, he said, "Okay, we can sit in the car." Great, then I got to lug everything back to the car where we watched the rest of the game. At least we were warm the rest of the game. Unfortunately, Alex's team lost pretty badly and they were scoreless.

I love this picture of Patrick getting down to the kids' level. They all seem to be paying attention, too. Coaching five and six-year olds has been a challenge, but I know Patrick is up to it and enjoys it. I think they enjoy him, too.