See this bright, smiling boy? Wanna know why he's so happy? Because he just made the deal of the decade with Mommy. We all know Dallin hates having his picture taken. And Mommy really likes to take pictures. I'd been trying to get a good close up shot of him at his soccer game without success. Finally, I said, "If you stand still and smile really big just one time, I promise I won't take another picture of you this whole soccer season." Dallin, however, had a better idea: "How about this one, Mom? I'll let you take my picture if we can go to McDonald's for lunch!" Did Mommy take the bait? Of course! And now both Mom and Dallin are very, very happy.
The candid action shots turned out great, too, as you can see below:
Speaking of goals, he scored 4 and a half of them this morning! (He says it was 6, but methinks someone has a tendency to exaggerate!) On the first goal, he had a bit of help from the other team. He kicked the ball within just a few feet of the goal, and some poor little kid from the other team finished the job for him. The other four goals, he made right in succession with a wide open field. The funny part is, the other team's coach was really intense, much more "professional" than ours, and much moreso than I thought was necessary for 5 and 6 year-old kids. But it didn't seem to make any difference for them.
So Dallin's loving soccer. And Dallin's really, really good at soccer. Too good, I'm afraid. He's starting to get a big head, and he's only been playing for just over a week. He's scored goals every game so far, and several at practice too. He's playing on a younger team, because we registered so late that there were no teams available in his age group. But his birthday was just 7 days before the cut-off, so he's really only a few weeks older than some of the other kids on the team. One of the reasons they let him be in this league was because he'd never played soccer before. Yet I'm not sure they're going to continue to believe us on that one, because he is already so good. He's just a natural athlete, no matter what sport it is.
So now the urgent question in our house is how to teach him sportsmanship. And how to teach him to recognize the talents of others. He's good at recognizing the accomplishments of his teammates--as long as they do accomplish things on the field. We just have to figure out how to help him realize that even those who are not strong players are still making efforts that are just as valid as his are. and they have other talents, just as he has other things that don't come so easily for him. It will be a bit of a challenge, I'm afraid. He's watched so much basketball that it's not uncommon to play a little game of something with him and hear constantly, "You wanna piece of me? You wanna piece of me???" or " Go Dallin! Yeah Dallin! You're the player! Go Dallin!" There's no conceit here.
Comments