One of the things that I love most about Ellie and Ethan is their penchant for being active. Neither of them is particularly happy with sitting around and being lazy. They’d much rather be having fun and using their imaginations or playing some kind of game. In fact, playing games has been a consistent in our home for quite a while. There’s been lots of games of cornhole, hours of me teaching Ellie to play tennis, and plenty of rounds of catch with a baseball and a glove. Of course, I would be remiss if I neglected to mention all of the time spent tossing a football with Ethan.
Over the past month or so, our family has embraced a new
game: soccer or futbol for our Spanish speaking friends. I don’t completely
remember how it started but long story short, we signed Ethan up for soccer
with Sporting Kansas City’s youth soccer program. I’m sure part of our thinking
was that Ellie has routinely taken gymnastics classes for the past few years
and maybe it would be a good thing for Ethan to have an activity of his own. I’m
pretty sure we told him he could play soccer or baseball but can’t confirm or
deny that. The end result was that he picked soccer and as such, found his new
favorite sport!
It's honestly been really fun to watch Ethan’s understanding
and skill for “the Beautiful Game” grow over the past few weeks. Early on, his
only goal was to kick the ball. As the weeks went by though, he developed his
ability in moving the ball downfield and especially in defense. Seriously, I
don’t know a ton about soccer but I can truthfully say that the kid is a menace
to other players when it comes to defense. He even had another player call him
a bully due to his propensity for hustling downfield and routinely stopping
potential goals.
Yesterday actually marked Ethan’s final game of the season.
Going into the final game, Ethan’s team, the Gray Wolves, sat with a record of
2 – 3. If you know Ethan at all, then it’s no surprise to hear that he was
extremely unsatisfied with that record. On more than one occasion, he actually
complained to Bethany and me about his teammates not giving their all. Honestly,
that was a good opportunity to teach him about the concept of winning and
losing as a team.
Lucky for Ethan’s competitive nature, the entire team seemed
to be on the same page for the game yesterday. It was as if they all knew it
was their final chance to end the season on a high note. Ethan put on his
normal masterful defensive performance which included some last-minute blocks
of what otherwise would have been an easy goal for the Green Grasshoppers. The
highlight though had to have been watching him deftly weave his way down the
field and score a goal all by himself while his teammates were laying on the
ground.
When the final whistle rang, the score of the game was 4 to
3 in favor of Ethan’s squad. Honestly as I watched Ethan get his medal symbolizing
the end of a fun season, I was a little bummed. I’ve had a great time watching
him play over the past few weeks. Never fear though as we’ve already signed him
up for the Fall season. I’m honestly excited to see how he improves once that
time comes as he’ll actually be having full practices one night a week prior to
his games on the weekends. It’s going to be fun!
#DaddyWrite
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