Mario morphed into a football star over the last eight weeks. The boy who once moaned and groaned about having to go to practice now hates leaving when practice is over. The boy who made all of the parents chuckle in one of the first games because he walked over to the sidelines and cried “when will this be over?” now refuses to come out of the game.
A testament to Jon and me for making him stick with it.

He played his last game Saturday morning in the bitter cold wearing his skull cap and batting gloves to keep warm. He looked bad to the bone.

He played most of the first half. When the coach told him to rest on the sidelines so another kid could play, Mario would not budge from the field. It was only after all three coaches and Jon yelled at him that he obeyed.

He loves the camraderie with the other boys – always wrestling or yakking it up or playing with them. It’s been good getting him on this team in order to learn teamwork and cooperation, and to make friends. When we take Ri to school, the boys on his team yell “hi Mario” and he loves it. Jon and I agree that he is going to be a handful once he enters kindergarten.

At the end of their last practice, all of the older kids lined up and the little kids got to run by them and tackle a dummy. They loved it, especially Mario. He cremated that dummy and made us so proud! Ha!

After he hit the dummy, he stood right behind it while the next little boy ran towards it. The dummy fell into Mario and hit his eye. My mom instinct rushed me over to him to see if he was ok. He turned to me and yelled “Mom, go away!” Yep, he’s a man now that he’s finished his first season of football and he doesn’t need his mom (that is until it’s 8 pm and he wants me to hold him up the stairs and read a book).