Rasslin

The gym at my old highschool was roaring today. Big mats, one white and one red, were spread across the rubberized floor that's only six years past it's recommended replacement date, children of most ages were dressed in tiny little singlets and parents and grandparents were hollering and cheering their heads off.

That's right, it's Peewee Wrestling time.

Farm Bro and Sis In Law, in the time honored style of parents everywhere, decided that it was time for Eldest Nephew to get involved in sports.

Farm Bro did Peewee Wrestling, and had a fine time, and Eldest Nephew is a natural at rolling around on the floor grappling with someone, so Peewee Wrestling it was. Besides, Peewee Wrestling was about to start when Sis In Law got the idea in her head.

Today was his first meet, and while he was up against a little monster in his first match (ok, so the kid wasn't a monster, he just had more experience and E.N. was a bit distracted with all the noise and hullabaloo) and got pinned in thirteen seconds, his second match was a thing to behold.

They faced off, E.N. in red, his opponent in blue. The whistle blew and it was on like Donkey Kong!

Ya'll, it looked like a red and blue pinwheel across that mat as they rolled over and over and over. Just log rollin over each other...

No pin, and they tied on points, so they had to do a tie-breaker... Of course, they didn't figure that out and the boys thought they were done, so E.N. sort of lost the momentum, and got pinned in the tie breaker, but by gawd he went down trying!

Farm Bro and Sis In Law were helping out... SIL was keeping scores and Farm Bro was timing.... But, it being small town Peewee Wrestling, E.N. wrestled on their mat both times.

SIL managed to keep it pretty well together, but FarmBro was on the mat waving the foam bat that they gave him to tap the ref with when time was up around and beating the mat with it...

Which says nothing about Farmmom and I... Each kid gets to have two people at the mat when they're wrestling, which meant that since Farm Bro and SIL were both technically staff today, Farmmom and I got to get up to the mat and cheer the munchkin on.

Ya'll... I thought Farmmom was going to crawl out on that mat and hold the other kid down so E.N. could pin him, a couple of times. Both of us were hollering and cheering and pounding on the mat... We looked like crazy people.

Which actually means we looked like every other family member at mat-side.

Munchkin fell into a great weight class this time... there were only three of them in it, so he was guaranteed a medal... It helped sooth his injured pride, from getting pinned so quick his first match, and that bronze looks pretty darned shiney at that age.

After his second match everyone made much of him and folks across the gym thought he'd won... and he did, in every way that counts. He had fun, he tried hard, and he gave the other kid a sportsmanlike hug at the end of the match.

Hey, they're six.

Next weekend he travels, and I wish his parents much luck keeping him and Younger Nephew under control in a new place.

Today, I only managed to keep Younger Nephew settled down by dint of bribes of candy and chips.

And, of course, squeezins.