Kickin' It

I had to share some photos of Rowan's soccer experience.  Yes, I said soccer.  An organized, TEAM sport, where he had to listen to his coach and work with his peers.  I came up with the idea last spring, my husband thought I was crazy, Rowan's preschool teacher thought I was a genius.  I went with the opinion of the person who had more experience (sorry, honey.) 
I am happy to say it was not a disaster.  While Rowan was not the strongest player on his team, he generally listened to the coach and interacted with his peers. Though I don't think the coach ever heard him say a single word in two months.   His playing was funny.  He just stood there the first game, until I encouraged him a little more, then he started to get in there.  One game he actually kicked the ball TEN whole times.  The next game he got spooked by some aggressive players and then for the rest of the season became very crafty at running away from the ball while somehow making it look like he was running with the group.  It was hilarious.
My favorite moment, however, was during the first game.  He'd had one practice, and we had drilled it in to his head: no hands, no hands, no hands.  At one point during the game, the ball went out of bounds.  The coach chose Rowan to throw it back in.  Rowan just stared at him, unresponsive.  The coach waited a minute, then chose another kid.  A couple of minutes later, Rowan ran over to me and whispered, "He wanted me to touch the ball with my hands!"  So...yeah, we had to review that one exception.

Proud brother, looking on

Kicking.  Not at the ball, but kicking anyway.

Running fast!

I am so proud of my little guy!