Sunrise, Sunset

The Boy began his career as a soccer referee on Saturday. He went through the training course, passed the test, registered with the state, and is now qualified to earn $10 an hour reffing games for kids under ten.

He was nervous enough to have dreamed about it the night before, waking up to tell me about his playing a harp while marching around during a huge ceremony held to open the soccer season. I took him to the field and waited around to make sure he was able to figure out where to sign in and which games he'd be running, and I stayed for a while to watch.

He was the smallest kid in the group of mostly teen-aged refs milling around on the field, and his gold uniform shirt was big enough to make his chest look especially skinny. I could tell by his body language that he was feeling very insecure about the whole thing, but he made it through some instructions and discussions with a coach, and then he took off with the players (seven-year-olds), inspected their shin guards, and ran them through some Simon Says-like drills to make sure they knew where they would be and that they should listen to him. Then he blew his whistle and dropped the ball, and they were off.

And I nearly collapsed in a puddle of tears. My baby boy was competent and comfortable as ALL BY HIMSELF he took the little kids through their game, helping with goal kicks and throw-ins, running breaks, talking to coaches, jogging up and down the field with his whistle in his mouth, and generally being capable and independent in a way that made me so very proud . . . and so very sad that he's not my baby anymore.

He loved it, though. He loved the kids, some of whom he knew from school, and he loved how they listened to him and saw him as someone in authority. And later that day, when I asked him to get the laundry out of the dryer for me, he said, "Aw! But I worked all day!" Nice try, kiddo, but welcome to the world.

In other news, I am slightly addicted to knitting the Ball Band Dishcloth from the Mason-Dixon Knitting book (the M-D ladies say in the book that they took the pattern from the yarn people, and it is indeed printed on the label of each ball of yarn). I made this sunshiny one first, and quickly lost it to my mom the moment she laid eyes on it.


I washed and dried it to make sure it holds together well, and it does. It's soft and absorbent and awesome. I'm making a bunch now for C for his birthday. It may seem like an odd gift for an ex-husband, but he's a Clean Freak and will appreciate them. I'm using colors from his kitchen, and will wrap them with some dish gloves and Mrs. Meyer's dishwashing liquid, and he will love them.