Grrr...

    This season, Barry is coaching Grayson’s little soccer team of five boys. “The Ice Bats,” as the boys so named themselves. Today, we were scrambling to get the whole fam in the car for our nine o’clock game. We were all buckled in and pulling out of our apartment parking lot, when Grayson started freaking out that he forgot something.

    We pulled back in, and Grayson begged his Daddy to go get the pages he colored. Really? Turns out, instead of going to bed last night, he stayed up and colored a picture for each of the boys on his team. A little obnoxious… but how cute, sweet, and adorable is that?!?!

     Even though we were running behind after retrieving the random Christmas Bear coloring pages, we were the first ones on the field. Whenever a teammate showed up, Grayson excitedly ran up to the kid and thrust a hand-signed picture in their arms. The last little five year old kept telling him his Mom wasn’t there to hold the picture so he wouldn’t accept it. (Uhhh... Where's your family?) 

     At the end of the game (we lost by one point), Grayson once again handed his picture to the kid… and how did the ungrateful little stinker respond? “I don’t like this and don’t want it,” and gave it back to my aspiring artist. Grayson came up to me heartbroken, crying. (He might have been a little more dramatic than usual from staying up waaaaay too late last night.)  

    A fellow Ice Bat mother overheard his lament and saved the day. She told Grayson that her three year old daughter really wanted one of Grayson’s pictures, after gushing about how great a job he did. Gray proudly handed over the page and all was well.

   I was really glad, however, for this brush with disappointment. It reassured my decision to wait one more year before Grayson starts kindergarten. He has a mid-August birthday and could’ve started this year… but now I’m glad he didn’t. This mama’s not ready to see my child have to deal with any punk kids. Not yet, anyway.

For now, he can stay young and innocent and color his little heart out.