Three weeks ago, Simon played his last soccer game of the spring season with Highland Youth Recreation League. Two weeks ago, Simon played his first t-ball game of the summer season with Highland Youth Recreation League.
That single week away from sports was really tough on him! Fortunately, he has his mom and dad to take him to Seneca Park—jointly and severally—to play soccer two to three times per week as well as running his Bubbie through her paces in her yard once or twice. There is no rest for the Simon-related!
Yesterday I dragged my camera out with me for the game, and through its lens I saw t-ball in a whole new light: the light of (very) young love. The girls have liked Simon for some time. I’ve had at least five moms tell me that their daughters have crushes on him. Then just last week another friend’s daughter informed her father that several of the girls in his class plan to marry him. We heard more about one girl’s plans at last week’s Spring Program (our last!), when her parents laughingly described their daughter’s plans to marry Simon at 8:00 p.m. on the beach at Hilton Head. Simon has even been involved in two mock weddings, made all the more charming by his utter obliviousness to what was going on.
But take a gander at these photos:
I think our little Romeo is figuring it out. He and Aubrey, pictured above, ran, chased each other, tickled each other’s knees with blades of grass, and threw their gloves on their heads and into the air for the better part of two hours. The game was on, and that game was not necessarily t-ball.
So what to make of this development? At least one camp sits firmly in the “you are in big trouble” school of thought, anticipating devastating emotional attachments and who knows what else in middle school. I’m not buying it. I had my first crush at around the same age, and it didn’t lead me down any dangerous paths. What’s more, I can’t help but be pleased that Simon himself likes the nice girls best. His favorites are consistently the sweetest and most innocent of his cohort.
And finally, I attribute at least some of this to his basic personality and his life-long familiarity with girls. He’s always been way outnumbered by girls in his class, he’s always had the majority of his play-dates with girls, and he’s gaga over his two Sudanese sisters. I think, as much as anything, what I see above is the logical outcome of having a boy who is sensitive enough to relate to girls and familiar enough with them to know how to.
I guess we’ll test that theory in about 7 or 8 years. For now, I’m just going to sit back and enjoy the show.