Gamblin’ Man

On Wednesday, Noah had his first soccer practice.

He’s not quite four, so my expectations were not high. When the other kids were four, if memory serves, I basically watched their whole teams spontaneously, simultaneously fall down over and over, throughout the entire game, every game. There was very little ball kicking, and quite a lot of falling down and also crying.

Noah is also very shy, and a bit nervous. He has been looking forward to soccer starting for–well, I was going to say for weeks, but really, for the last two years, once he was old enough to notice his siblings playing. Maybe longer.

But the other night, when his father took him to practice, he refused to play. He watched with great interest, but didn’t participate yet. He was too overwhelmed.

At the end of the practice, his coach, who is used to kids this age, suggested that maybe Noah could be his helper at the beginning next time. And that they’d play lots of games. Starting with blackjack, and he said Noah should bring a lot of cash.

I thought that was hilarious. Noah, however, is somewhat more literal than me.

He’s super excited to go to soccer practice next week. He can’t wait to play blackjack. He has no idea that his coach was joking, or what blackjack is. But he can’t wait.

Coach Jason, here’s hoping you can invent a soccer game called blackjack.