"Preach the gospel at all times; if necessary, use words." Saint Francis of Assisi

Friday, June 04, 2010

Man of Extremes

We've shared that Anderson is a man of extremes. What do we mean? Well one little thing can greatly affect his entire day (which consists of the next 5-10 minutes).

Examples:

Benay makes pancakes for breakfast. Anderson is excited about that and will say, "This is the best day of MY LIFE!" 

You pick him up from school and ask how his day was.  He might give you, "Well, it was the worst day of my life ever!" You then find out that it was because he didn't get to go play outside at play time because it was raining.

This week he started soccer school. He actually tried out at this school about a month ago and LOVED it. He immediately made friends with the kids in the class. Honestly I was impressed with the way the boys took him in. He is the youngest in the class and some of the kids are two-three-four years older than him. But on that first day they all came up and and shook his hand and really made him feel at home. I immediately liked the group. They even picked him up and carried him around when he made a goal. For a man of extremes that act alone would make your month!

Anyway, it's been about a month since we've been able to go back. We took him back this week to sign him up to practice two days a week. He was in HEAVEN. He got out of the car by himself and walked to the group. Most six year olds would be super shy about doing that for fear that they may not remember you, etc. I asked was he okay going by himself and he said, "Sure, these guys are my great friends." He hopped out and started toward them and just waved a big wave at them. They all came running and gave him hugs and high fives.

After practice we went to the office to officially sign him up for the class and get his uniform. It was very hard for him to contain his excitement. You see this soccer school is an official part of our favorite soccer team. Our pro team has soccer schools around the city so that kids can improve their skills and it allows the team an opportunity to find talent for their junior teams in hopes that one day they might find someone good enough to play for the pro team.

Getting the uniform with the Inter logo on it put Anderson through the roof with happiness-joy-excitement. He came home from school the next day, immediately took off his school uniform and put on his soccer uniform and wore it the entire day and even slept in it. Like I said, he's excited about the uniform.

The Inter team logo is on the left side of the shirt and shorts.

Here are some "action" shots he gave me after we got home. He didn't have a soccer ball to pose with but that didn't stop him from showing what his face would look like if he were on the field with a ball.
So we are on our way home from practice and Garrett (He also had his first day at practice at another professional club here in town. He made a goal, by the way, with his left foot....he's a righty. I'm biased I know but that's pretty awesome. Watch for him in the pros one day.) and I are in the front seat and Anderson is in the back.

Anderson starts flipping out with excitement and wants me to look. He's looking at his new uniform. I tell him I'm driving and I can't look until we get home. He can't wait five more minutes to show me. He tells me he had no idea he was also getting "this" with his uniform. It must be the greatest uniform ever! He can't believe it! It's amazing!(If you think any of that is an exaggeration on my part then you don't know our son.)

Garrett finally turns around to take a look so that he can be my eyes for me. He says, "That's really cool Anderson." Anderson says, "Can you believe that I got this too?" Garrett says, "No. That's awesome."

He then turns around and tries not to let Anderson see him giggling a little bit (that would crush Anderson). Why was it funny to Garrett?

This is what made Anderson's uniform the greatest uniform EVER:
Drawstrings on the shorts!

I'm not sure any other kid, in the history of the world, ever had them on his shorts but he sure does.

He is our man of extremes and we love him.

1 comment:

Jennifer said...

We both died laughing at this post. Way to go, Andersonzinho Gaucho. We're proud of you!