Here's a piece of advice: if you've never watched three year olds practice soccer, fix that immediately. It'll be the most adorable thing you've ever witnessed and why deprive yourself of that much adorableness? (Although, you know, make sure it's your own child or a child you know and love so you can avoid being the stranger creeping on the the soccer field.)
Kyle had his first soccer practice yesterday and if you're wondering How the heck did that kid get old enough to play soccer?, well, YOU AND ME BOTH. I'm struggling to wrap my head around the speed with which he's growing, but it's still so damn awesome to watch him grow.
Thankfully, he's on a team with a few friends from school so instead of shyly watching from the sidelines (what I suspect his response would have been if he hadn't known any of the other kids) he jumped right in, listening attentively and adorably for the first half of class and then, well, breaking down into hysterical silliness with his friends the last half. "Oh look at him dribble so well! He's even correctly using the inside of his fo---no wait, now he's purposefully fallen down and trying to make his friend laugh by, wait, is he kicking himself?"
As I kept saying to the other parents: Three year olds, right?
I'm also the Soccer Mom, as in the Team Manager. So far, all this really means is I'm in charge of organizing the end-of-year party. And, yeah, SOLD. I AM ALL OVER THAT. There is a Pinterest board just waiting to be started, let me tell you. Mike is the assistant coach, and this might be his proudest parenting moment to date. He played soccer all through school and when he was told he was going to be a dad, I bet "I get to be a soccer coach one day" was his first thought right after "well, Jennie's about to get even more emotional for a while. That's swell." One thing about Mike, though, is that he's really awful with names. (See the time he thought he dated Kelly Clarkson.) (Spoiler: He didn't actually date Kelly Clarkson.) I could tell he was trying hard to quickly learn the kids' names last night, but it was rather hilarious to hear him from the stands, "Great job....buddy!" "Awesome dribbling....you!" He'll get there, and Kyle will have a blast in the meantime.
Me? Well, no shock, I'll be the one tearing up in the stands.