The next David Beckham

So Bud had his first soccer practice last night. There was exercise, laughter, hard work, and blood! Everything you can ask for in organized sports! Unfortunately Bud was in on the blood. Thankfully it wasn’t his.

The team is comprised of 5 and 6 year olds. Being that Bud is tiny and everyone else is not (ooh, I take that back. That other really short kid is on his team too! Yay!) the hard parts of his head are level with the soft parts of the other kids. One of the bigger kids was dribbling the ball down the field and she overran the ball. Bud was behind her going full steam ahead (which is surprisingly fast for having such short legs) and she turned around and he didn’t see her and plowed right into her. She instantly got a bloody nose and Bud has a nice welt on his cheek. Thankfully she is a pretty tough girl (after some mommy hugs and crying, of course) and recovered pretty quickly. Oh and I think the ice pop that somehow materialized out of thin air helped too. (Ice pops. Never leave home without them. I think that’s how the saying goes.)

I actually didn’t see the incident because Babe did her “I gotta go” dance and we were on our way back from the bathroom when I saw Bud holding his cheek and W screaming with a tissue under her nose. My first thought was that Bud tripped on his dress uniform shirt and crashed into her. (More on the dress in a minute.) I’m glad it was just an accident and not really anyone’s fault. If he had kicked a ball in her face I would have felt a lot worse. I’m glad kids are resilient!

So now on to Bud’s dress. Apparently I’m going to have to get my Master’s in sewing because this kid cannot wear any of the team shirts unless they are altered. He had particularly long shorts on and the uniform shirt was still longer! He looked so damn cute out there in his neon green dress and shin guards but it really isn’t practical for a sporting event. We tucked it in eventually but there was so much billowing excess that his arms were getting tangled up in it. I know hands don’t matter in soccer but they do when you are trying to run! The poor kid was basically in a sack! I’ll have to work on that by his game on Monday (and by that I mean I’ll beg my mother-in-law to hem it for us. What? I have no shame.)

He’s only had one practice but so far I think soccer is much more his speed. I’m judging this on his absolutely BEAMING smile the entire practice (and for the rest of the night) but I don’t think I’m jumping the gun.