soccer boy!

I should have posted about this a long time ago, but it slipped away from me. Oops.

Last fall we put Talmage in soccer for the first time. He enjoyed it so much that we decided to go for round two this spring! He LOVED it. Not every minute...not when he was learning teamwork or how to be a good sport...sometimes not in the rain...but for the most part he was grinning from ear to ear!

He always has to have his gatorade...haha. Probably the ONLY time I would let him drink the stuff. It keeps him motivated :D

The "team" for the 3-5 year olds is Mighty Mites. We'll probably do one more season of that before he moves onto the bigger stuff- if he's still interested in it by that point :)

Our favorite coach talking to the little soccer players. This guy is from Jamaica and Talmage loves him.

Talmage is kinda short compared to the rest of the kids that play soccer here. He can't run as fast and he tries really hard to catch up, but then he stumbles and falls. He falls a lot. It breaks my heart every time and yes, I've shed some tears from the sidelines. Sometimes it really gets to him and he needs a moment, but most of the time he bounces right back up and keeps at it! He gets genuinely disappointed when the other team scores a goal, but he's learned to say "good job" with a smile. If playing soccer didn't make him so happy I don't know that we'd keep him in it... but as long as he enjoys it, we'll keep trying! At this age you can't expect much anyway...at least that's what I keep telling myself :) 

Having T in soccer has taught me patience...and how to back off from being that overly protective mom all the time. Injuries and boo-boos happen in sports...this I know...it's hard to accept that he will get pushed around and shoved and smacked in the face every now and then. (Though I often wish that some of the kids would just GET over themselves. haha...)

For those few but precious times he HAS scored a goal, those were the best mornings ever and he wouldn't stop talking about it- play by play. Often we'd go to Home Depot afterwards and "celebrate" by doing the kid's workshop. Even if we had nothing to celebrate we would go! Good times at the Home Depot.

And some videos for your viewing pleasure :)

We love our little soccer player and we are SO proud of him!!!