It took four years, but I'm finally a soccer mom!

Is this what David Beckham looked like before the tattoos?

This fall we decided it was a good time to introduce team sports to the Bowling family schedule. Emery doesn't crawl quite fast enough for any sport (and you should see her try to catch) so Alastair was the man for the task. Kim and I both played soccer as kids and we have a soft spot in our house for this fast paced non-boring sport. Alastair has played with his soccer ball for several years now and was super excited to start the season.

Alastair looking debonair despite the horror of his team's unfortunate color palate.

Did you know there is actually a lot of running in soccer? Yes, so did I. However, somehow Alastair missed this crucial detail. The ironic thing here is that Alastair will happily run until he drops on the playground or even making laps around the house on rainy days. When Coach Dave asked him to do lots of running during the first practice, he then started complaining to anyone that would listen, "I'm so tired. I don't like running."

Two practices with this carrying on and we have three rules for soccer in our house now:

1. Listen to Coach Dave and do what he says.
2. Do your best.
3. Have fun.

Note the little blond guy looking the wrong way.

The first game was a little rocky. There were lots of tears on the field and not all of them were Alastair's. Thankfully.

Boy, that assistant coach looks familiar.

For that game, the big achievement was keeping him on the field. Many of the kids were hesitant to get into the crush of kids for the ball and they were easily discouraged when their effort wasn't immediately rewarded. Overall, I think it is going to be a great learning experience and a huge growth opportunity for him.

Chilling at halftime with his crew.

Ready for game two.

Practice last night was great. All the kids were more interested after their first game and they had a blast running drills and stealing the ball from the dads who help out. We challenged Alastair to follow all three rules and promised a great reward if he did. There wasn't a bit of whining during practice and as he ate his ice cream cone on the way home, Alastair told us he was excited for Saturday's game.