Because the best stories never start with salad.
It was Sofia's first official soccer practice (the first week was rained out) and Mariah & Jeremy had birthday celebration plans, I was asked to take Sofia. Little Miss Independent & Determined and knows exactly what she wants, doesn't hesitate to fire off wonderful suggestions when I picked her up.
"lEtS gEt iCe cReAm BEFORE pRaCtIcE!" I've always been a get-ice-cream-after-sports-kind-of-mom, I am officially now a get-ice-cream-before-sports-kind-of-grandma. So I caved! I estimated I had 10 minutes to make it happen prior to arriving at practice, braiding her hair, putting on her shin guards and cleats.
She wanted the waffle bowl and all-American sprinkles.
As she sat in my SUV with air conditioning keeping her cool, taking her time eating ice cream, I struggled in the intense heat standing outside the car to get her shin-guards on over her sweet, chubby little legs.
Practice starts and she isn't having it. The kids stretched to warm up, she didn't budge. She was hot, I was there, and while she likes her soccer uniform, she did not want to participate.
In all fairness, one mom said to me, "At least she is standing on the white line. My son won't even stand near the kids!" About three others cried and walked off the field. Sofia stood sideways with her shoulder up. When she had enough, she walked off the field, plopped on my lap to continue eating ice cream and prattled off other best suggestions like the library and the rainbow car wash would be fun.
This is a flashback to Brooke playing soccer. She would look through the dugout and ask her dad and I if we told her coach she wouldn't be coming back. I took a stance then, she wasn't leaving practice. I'm not so much that now.
Grandma-style is a bit more... my own hair is damp from the heat, Sofia's cheeks were bright pink because she was so hot, why are we suffering? Let's go!
The library was closed, off to the rainbow car wash we go! She noticed we were near my house and wanted to drive by to say, "gOoD mOrNiNg" to my house, so we did. When she saw a car in my driveway, she asked if I had friends at my house. That was great grammy & papa in my pool.
We know where this story is going... she was happy as can be swimming all over the pool with great grammy & papa! Cooled off and refreshed, a sucker for the car ride home, I've realized I may not be the best as soccer practice grandma. However, when it comes to cooling an overly hot, overly over soccer little girl, I'm a ROCKSTAR!
