M played soccer for the first time this fall.
He was cute. (And exceptionally cold on this particular morning for pictures.)
We can say for certain that he wasn't a particularly aggressive player.
We'd try to get him to run fast after the ball....not just jog with the pack and run in the general direction of everyone else.
When he'd come to the sidelines for a break, Britton and I stooped to such levels as "You've gotta run fast like Thomas does when he's pulling an important load for Sir Topham Hatt" and "You need to run fast like Gordon the Express Engine!! He's the fastest on Sodor!"
There was another time that several planes were flying over the field for a fly-in at the airport. All the kids were fascinated with them and we told M "you need to run as fast as that airplane!" Which only resulted in this...
But airplane wings were better than flapping wings, which is what he started doing one time when he spotted a butterfly on the field.
There were occasional burst of energy and excitement.
And like I said, he was ALWAYS cute.
But if I turned from the game to check on E, sometimes I'd look back to the field and not find M with rest of the kids chasing the ball on the field. I'd find this... he had fallen and was picking the grass out of his socks.
He prayed each night for God to help him score a soccer goal.
And while that didn't happen this season, he did get a medal. Which seemed to surpass his expectations immeasurably.
And since he learned a few cool things about being on a team,
...we're gonna call soccer 2011 a success.
