Lacrosse

Confession: I am an overprotective mom.  Shocking I know.  lol  So when my boys got old enough to start playing sports, I said "absolutely not" to football, "no way" to ice hockey.  I had terrible visions of broken teeth & traumatic brain injuries & wasn't even going to go there.  (I can blame my career on that one I guess).  So they play soccer & basketball & have fun with those things.  Relatively low contact, but they get some exercise & have some fun, right?  Fine.

So then we moved up to New England & the sporting possibilities are much more varied.  Many of which we have little to no experience with.  One of these was lacrosse.  I knew it was a Native American sport, & I knew that it tends to be kind of an ivy league thing.  The extent of my knowledge on it was that it was kind of like field hockey but you scooped up the ball in your little net.  So when the boys asked begged me to play Matt & I agreed to let them try it out.  They participated last year in what was called "skill building" for the third & fourth graders.  They learned how to play the game & how to "cradle" the ball & all that sort of stuff.  Again, relatively tame.

Now that Mark is in the fifth grade, he gets to play on a real team this year with games & a little travel.  Ok cool.  He really enjoyed it, so that's fine.  Or is it?  On the first day we met in the gym so they could get their padding & helmets.  Nearly every inch of my kid was getting equipped.  I was allowing him to play a game where he needed to be armed?!?!  What the hell am I letting him get into!?!  (Enter overdramatic mom moment).  This is a whole other level of game than the fun little skills he learned last year.  (Cringe!)

Fast forward to this weekend & he had his first game.  Oh.  My.  Goodness was it fun!  Yes, I fear that I will give myself an ulcer with all of the worrying I will do with my kid on that field (and Lord help me when Gavin joins in next year!) but it was actually a really entertaining game!  And even more entertaining was watching how much my son really got into it & had fun playing.  I'll be the first to admit that my kids are not exactly sports enthusiasts.  They'll play, but they're usually... well... polite players.  Almost as if they tell their opponent, "that's okay.  You can have the ball.  Here you go!" lol  I feel like a broken record sometimes when I tell my guys "It's okay to get into the game.  Act like you actually want that ball!"  It's frustrating.  But Mark & Lacrosse??  He was ALL into it.  I was watching my kid shove his way into the mix & go after that little ball with a vengeance, even though many of the kids on the other team were twice his size.  I was half thrilled & half terrified!!!  Here are a few pics (granted I took nearly 200, so you're welcome for paring them down! lol)

He's #46 right there in the middle.  Totally doesn't care that that kid is HUGE!

Sadly this is not illegal.

Totally going after that ball

Look at him shoving his way in there!!  That kid ended up knocking him down, & he just jumped back up like "whatevs!"

Go team!

 So anyway, proud momma moment.  They ended up losing the game, but I look forward to watching these boys get better & better throughout the season.  And I may need a valium prescription to cope with my overwhelming urge to scoop my kid up off that field & carry him home to safety! lol ;)

And just for fun, I took a few pictures of Natalie too (and Gavin the few times he let me) during the game.  It was a beautiful day & the two of them were having a blast rolling down the hill & racing together.  Too cute.