#1 Fan

I waited a long time (it seemed to me) to have kids, and then I waited 4 or so more before I became a soccer mom.  Fast forward to now and I'm a football & t-ball mom at the same time....CRAZY FUN!  I don't know who was more excited...D to start his first real sport (I'm grooming him to be my baseball player), K to play his first flag football game, or me. I agreed to wear K's SAINTS hat which didn't match my outfit at all, so that must say something! :)

Dylan reminded me so much of my baby brother, Jonny. During his whole practice he kept looking over to see that I was watching.  He'd give me cute smiles, wave, or thumbs up. I was a little nervous for him because some of the boys had played a year, were older, and this was his first time.  He also had more than a few meltdowns last winter during his tiny tots class where he flat out refused to do what the coach wanted him to do. We prepped him on the way on the rules of sports: #1 Listen to coach #2 Do your best #3 Have fun #4 Be a good sport. I was pleasantly surprised because he did everything the coaches wanted him to do and he was really quite aggressive in going for the ball. It did my heart good to see him with a glove in hand, cap on head, and in his "baseball ready" stance.

Kaleb has become quite competitive lately, and that's been fun to see, too. While we were in Oregon, we went to Haylee's fun run at her school.  We started a few laps behind the rest of the group because Kaleb wasn't sure he wanted to run. When he did, I joined him and he just couldn't wait for Haylee, who was already tired after doing two laps.  So I jogged beside him and any time a group of kids would come up behind us, he'd go into super fast race mode and dart ahead of them. It happened at least three times. So funny! Then as we were getting ready to go to his game, he wanted to put black under his eyes (I didn't have any :( any) and wanted me to wear his brand new Saints hat.  He did really good on defense & pulled 5 flags (our version of tackles). He seemed to have lots of fun, giving big thumbs up to me, and getting double thumbs up from Rylan. Then after the game, snack, and coaches pep talk, he gave me a hug and just lost it.  Tears for no apparent reason.  Except there was.  "We lost. The other team scored 5 times and we only scored 4."  I tried to cheer him up, but he was pretty grumpy on the car ride home.  Kinda reminded me of someone else I used to know. ;)

The only way our sports night could have been better is if Ben was there.  But since he wasn't, I can claim #1 fan!