Swooping

Our local soccer team had a scrimmage last night against a local college. Thanks to the magic of Google Reader I saw in the local paper that tickets were only $5. I figured this was a good chance to give Amanda an evening without Lily, so I took her to it. What's funny is that she wanted watch "Lady & the Tramp" for the umpteenth time and was angry when I told her not to watch it because we were going to do something else. When I told her that we were going to a soccer game she changed her tune and got excited.

We got there a little too early, which is no surprise to anyone who has ever attended a sporting event with me. The game was not on the stadium's main field, but it was on one of the smaller adjoining fields. Both teams were practicing on one field and we got to walk right up to the field to watch. Lily really enjoyed watching them practice. After the teams went back to the locker rooms for their pregame talks Lily and I walked around the pitch. She got it in her head that we should race to the flags. Our first race was maybe 15 yards. Our second race was another short one. Our final race went the whole length of the pitch. Lily actually ran from one end of a regulation soccer field to the other. She can now run faster than I can walk, but trotting behind her was not too hard. She was a little winded when we finished, but it was still impressive. I was glad for a little jog to warm up a little bit as the temperature got into the low 50s as the sun went down.

Carolina scored an early goal, but I don't think Lily really understood what was happening. Her favorite thing was to see the ball get kicked long and high. Precise passing and dribbling didn't excite her so much. At about the 35th minute she was getting bored and thirsty, so we went back up to the bathroom. I suggested we watch the game for just a few minutes more and that was when she saw Swoops.

You may recall from last year that Lily was terrified of the mascot. This year she got excited to see him. In fact, she even gave him a high-five. We hung out long enough for halftime and Lily got an autographed photo of him.

In the end, Lily's three favorite things seemed to be:

• Seeing Swoops


• Watching the ball boy (he was around 10)


• Seeing the ball get kicked really high and far

A splendid time was had by all. And the bonus was that Noah was really sweet for Amanda.