Well, my Little Peanut, my First Born, my Dumplin', Love Bug, Little Miss Jaxon had her very first practice for her very first organized team sport and I couldn't be more excited/enthused/distraught. Yes, distraught. My baby girl is growing up and she does at least one thing a day to remind me of that. Sometimes it's as little as getting dressed all by herself and other times she's translating her little sister's words (with no enthusiasm at all, I might add). But today, after folding her socks over her shin guards and lacing up her cleats my heart clenched and it hasn't really relaxed yet. I mean, what is in store for my baby girl's life?!
While she was running around, dribbling the soccer ball, I couldn't take pictures fast enough. I wanted digital proof that all of this has happened...and then Maddi knocked the phone out of my hand and said, "WATCH JAXON!" Well, sure, I thought, mental snapshots are just as important. I watched and memorized her run and how she would slightly trip after stopping the ball. Her hand was nonchalantly slapping away her pigtails when they got in her line of sight. Her goalie-face. How she ALWAYS dribbled to her right in stead of straight ahead. And my most favorite moment of her first practice was during the first drill where she had a partner. She was supposed to dribble the ball as far as she could and then her partner was to chase her down after a few seconds and try to steal the ball away. She'd gone so far her partner was looking for her and Jaxon turned back to wave the girl chasing her, "Come on! You can do it!!" Silly little things that only a momma would notice, and notice I did. I love seeing her cheeks flushed like her life is being lived, that she's running as fast and hard as her healthy legs will carry her and that she enjoys it. And you know? Most of all, I love that her little sister wants to be a part of all of this as well.
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| Goalie Face. |
After Maddi got over how unfair it was that her older sister got to play and she was to stay across the white line she sung a different tune. One boy had taken Jaxon's ball (which was okay because balls were everywhere) and Maddi noticed. She ran straight up to him, yelled, "That's my sister's ball!" ripped it out of his hands, and then found big sister to show her what she'd done to help her out. All of these moments, moving pictures in my mind, just like Harry Potter's picture frames, will forever be etched in my memory. I don't know what's in store for her life but I hope that she lives every day to the best of her capability. If her legs work I want her to run, I want her to see things that make her eyes shine, and I want her to be thirsty and I want her to Believe. All these things I want for her and more.
(And just for the purpose of clarification I want all this for Maddi as well, but this is a Jaxon post because it was her first day of practice and all.)
