Soccer is FUNNNNN

Michael started his FAVORITE fall sport last weekend! SOCCER!!! Michael has been talking about soccer for a couple weeks, in his own little way... he shuffles his feet and points to the ground. (Soccer). Jacob had basketball tryouts and Michael signed 'basketball' and I said, no buddy, you have soccer on Saturday. you start Soccer really soon. On Friday, I picked the boys up from school and as soon as Michael got in the car, he shuffled his feet, and lifted his pointer finger (1 day). "Yes Michael, one day and you play soccer". He started smiling and clapped and clapped his hands! He knew, hes been waiting for soccer to start for a while! Saturday morning at 6am, Michael came in my room like always, and woke me up. I looked up at him and he was smiling and holding his soccer jersey from the previous year!! I said, "Michael, do you want to wear that today??" "yes" with a knock of his right hand. Alright- we are dressed and ready to go. Sissy is with us and we make the 45 minute trek to the soccer park!!! We are so fortunate to live in a community with resources like the SPENSA program that has so many volunteers and staff to help special needs kids play soccer. Its actually pretty overwhelming to see how many groups of kiddos are there to help assist people like Michael. Soccer lasts an hour with about 45 minutes of time to let the kids prepare for the game. They learn the logistics of the game, kicking the ball down the field between cones- Michael's not a big fan of the cones- he just made a b-line for the goal.. Then the group broke into two groups and played a real game. Michael did really well! He got the ball away from a kid a couple of times and scored a goal (wrong end for the

goal, but really who cares!). The only thing we are really going to have to work on is him hogging the ball and trying to make everyone move out of the way so he has plenty of room to kick. HA! he gets the ball and he will stand there and wave his hands back and forth so the kids know to give him space. And he wont move until he's content with that. You have to imagine the ref "Cmon Michael, kick the ball". Cam and I saying, "Michael, Michael, you've got to kick" and hes just standing there waving his hands, and shaking his head 'no'. He was going to kick the ball when he was ready!!! It amazes me how well Michael can communicate with people that dont know him. He amazes me everyday! Proud of you buddy!