I thought I'd never have a post entitled: "Soccer"...

So if you have soccer players and I read your blog, you've probably gotten a comment from me at some point to the effect of "I hate soccer and I don't read posts about soccer."

Here's why...I have four brothers, and they all played soccer. I spent a lot of time growing up, going from field to field (hello, in the NW rain) on Saturdays. From game to game, sport to sport. It wasn't always soccer, and I didn't always hate it. Sometimes there were cute older brothers at the games to flirt with, sometimes I was off the hook based on other invites, but inevitably, with four jock brothers, I logged many hours at tracks, fields and courts of every variation.

So...this is my once per season (unless she scores a goal, and I'm not going to hold my breath) post about my baby playing soccer.

Ruby is smitten with her status: soccer player. She beams while she wears her yellow soccer t-shirt around all day, everyday. She wears her soccer shoes until they give her blisters, and when I suggest she remove them, she takes a serious look at them and decides the pain is worth it. She wanted to do soccer last year, and I just kind of ignored the whole idea. This year, there was no ignoring, and it is a great sport, and so I decided to be a good mom and let her try it out.

The good thing is that the team is made up of a bunch of kindergarteners that go to the neighborhood elementary school, so this way, Ruby gets to know the children her age in our neck of the woods. Thanks to my friend Leah, whose daugther Ella is Ruby's friend for giving me the heads up and helping us get on the same team! It makes it more fun to have friends on the team, and Ella and Ruby are full of hugs for each other at practice and the game. It's really cute.

So their first game happened to be against a team that Kiley, one of Ruby's friends since she was just six months old, was playing on. They all played hard, and here's a cute pic of Ruby, Kiley and Ella together after the game.