Pele, Beckham... Cruz?

When you think of soccer greats, you definitely think of Pele.  Nowadays I guess you'd lop David Beckham into the mix too.

But perhaps a generation from now Cruz' name will be added to the list.

We signed Cruz up for a "Mommy and Me" toddler soccer class about a year ago.  He did quite well considering what was expected of him.  This spring we signed him up for a class where he'd be off on his own with the other kids and coaches, while the parents sat on the sideline (and evidently sip wine, as most of my fellow parents do).

Here's a picture of Cruz from the first class.

Before the carnage

That picture was the highlight because shortly after the picture was taken the rest of the class was a disaster.

The kids were all lined up at the start of the class and as part of their warm-up, the head coach had all the kids run to one of the corners of the field.  Well, off they all went and Cruz promptly got his legs entwined with someone else and down they went.  Next, he gets trampled as another boy who was right next to them literally runs over Cruz.

Now for those who don't know, we like to say that Cruz is a "kind soul" or a "delicate flower," which is to say that when something like that happens to Cruz, he doesn't take it lightly and it takes a while for him to recover.  As in, he was done with soccer for the day, if not for the rest of his life.  Cruz sat on the sidelines, being held by me, for the rest of that session.  Whenever I tried to get him to go back out, he'd remark, "It's not safe for me!"

There was quite a bit of worry that he would refuse all together to go to any more classes.  Our nanny suggested that the following week she take Cruz alone, without a parent, so that he wouldn't have as easy an "out".  Well it worked, and he's been playing ever since (and "being brave" while at it).

By the way, it's just a coincidence that Cruz is wearing a similarly colored outfit the day I filmed this.