Elijah's First Soccer Game

On March 17th, Elijah played in his first soccer game.  Grammie, Babo, Dendi, Bapa, Uncle Jason and Auntie Andrea came out to watch with us and support Elijah in his new adventure.  Before the game, we got Elijah to pose with Colton for a picture.  Colton and Elijah are in the same class, Colton's mom Tammy is the coach and Tammy teaches fifth grade with Scott.  Colton and Elijah have been good friends this year, playing together both in and out of school. 

After posing for the picture, Elijah got in some warm up kicks before they started playing.

Once the game started, Elijah followed the game closely, watching everyone's move and generally trying to learn the rules and get in on the action.  Often he was a few paces from the big group.  Yet, he was very interested in the score and super excited when his team scored and celebrated with Coach Tammy.

Even though, at times he seemed a little intimidated by all the kids and fast paced action, Coach Tammy made sure he had plenty of time with the ball.  She let him kick it in several times when it had been kicked out of bounds.  

While her brother was playing in his first soccer game, Keira enjoyed her time on the sidelines.  Fortunately, she had warmed up to the idea of watching Elijah play soccer.  Our first experiences at practices were less than enjoyable as she didn't like not being able to go play with him, too.  I think her mood was much improved by the addition of an audience and playmates -- the family.  Elijah was also happy to have so many fans coming out to cheer him on.

While Elijah played, Keira spent her time hanging out with her family, drawing on her magnetic board and riding around on Auntie Andrea and my shoulders.  I was especially impressed by her drawing.  That morning she had just figured out how to draw a face, then at the soccer game she added legs to her face and then drew other blobs around her face to represent the rest of the people in our family.