Did I ever tell you about the time that we took Liev to soccer class when he was two?  Since his big sis had been taking classes at the same soccer school for a couple of years already and since he had come along with me to watch her, we figured that Liev would just fall right in, no problems.

Sean took him to his first class one cold Saturday in January.  Mira and I met them afterward, and Sean looked half amused, half forlorn.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Oh, well, Liev wanted to be a dog the whole time.  He didn’t want to do any of the drills.”

Already, I had to laugh.  And so it went for the next couple of classes: Liev, the dog, sniffing around the bleachers and barking at the other children.

Finally, I asked Sean if Mira and I could come and try to help.  He agreed.  The other dads, whose kids were, of course, complying very nicely and doing everything Coach asked, were looking at Sean with a bit of incredulity.  He was getting a complex, I think.

We showed up, and immediately Liev is down on the floor nipping at our feet, ruffing, panting, and doing, if I may say, a most excellent dog impression.

With everyone’s help, we got to work.

“Liev, here, boy!  Doggie, let’s go play some soccer.”

Mira did the entire class with Liev, and Liev did the entire class, drills and all, as a puppy, down on all fours with his hands curled into his now-famous puppy paw.

I couldn’t stop laughing.  Every time I looked at the dads on the bleachers looking at us all like we were out of our tree, another eruption of giggles began.  Sean started laughing, too.  Mira was definitely laughing- while she was serious as can be about her own soccer class, she was having a lot of fun playing dog owner and teaching her puppy how to dribble.

One person who was NOT laughing?  The coach.  He told us in an irritated tone that Mira could not come back to the class and that Liev needed to listen to him.  Clearly, he was not a dog person!

Liev amazed me with his dramatic skills, his attention to detail, his focus, and his wildly creative mind.  Personally?  I thought that coach was rather silly.

Travel around a world of Sillies with Corner View, hosted by Francesca and this week’s theme by Heather:

jane – ian – joyce – francesca – kasia –isabelle – janis – kari – jgy – lise – cate –otli – dorte – ali– sunnymama– daan–ibb– kelleyn– ninja– theresa – cherry b – cole – lucylaine – skywriting– anna– rosamaría – tikjewit – juniper –valerie – mlle paradis– wander chow–don –flowtops – susanna– tania –kristin