Pelé in training

Aidan had his second soccer game today. It went about the same as the first. He divided his time chasing love bugs, walking around the field with his shirt over his face and eyes and doing monster roars at members of the opposite team. Though he did not sit down on the field and refuse to move at this game, he did not touch the ball ONCE.

He is only old enough to play by one week, and it shows! I keep trying to tell myself that this is a great learning experience for him, but I can't help myself from shouting at him from the sidelines, "Aidan, stop throwing yourself on the ground! Aidan, TRY to kick the ball! Aidan, turn around and look at your team!"

A mom beside me apparently thought I was a little crazy because she pretty much told me to relax and that when I learned to relax, Aidan would kick the ball. Uh, yeah... I thought about that for about a second until I saw Aidan squat down on the field, the ball roll to a stop 6 inches in front of him and he didn't notice because he was picking grass off the field.

Each quarter, a child is required to sit out. Aidan sat out the 3rd quarter this game. At the end of the quarter, his coach came over to him and said, "Aidan, are you ready to come back and play, or do you want to sit some more?" Was that a loaded question or what??? Though I felt his pain of having Aidan taking up a space on the field, I made Aidan get up and play, even though he cried that he needed to "rest" a little more. His team lost 9-1.

There's another game on Monday. His coach recommended I give Aidan some sugar before the game to try to encourage him to be more active. My baby! :-)