So, I took daddy's little girl to her very first cheer leading practice last night. Wow, was I in for a shock. I rolled in to the high school with Sophie and her brothers around 5:45pm. her practice was at 6pm. As we entered the gym, we could hear the giggles of teenage girls. It was the high school cheerleading team. Sophie went into a zone watching their every move. Grady had his eye on the candy machine, and Aidan... well, Aidan said, "If I was a girl I would be a cheerleader." For the next few minutes, we all watched the teenage, diet pill taking, caffeine induced, anorexic girls roll around on the matts with close to no clothing on. It was a pedophiles wet dream. After the high school practice was over, all 50 or so 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders lined up sitting cross legged on the floor, as the cheerleaders came over to divide them into groups of 10. I was mortified to see Sophie memorised by these girls. I do not want her to look up to or idolize those girls. I had a moment were I almost pulled her form the practice, but I stopped and took a deep breath and let it go. I watched with mild anxiety as she moved throughout the 5 stations learning a different cheer at each station. I started thinking about Sophie as an infant and how big she is getting, then it happened. The hair on the back of my neck stood up, my face got red and I felt this wet, itchy felling in my eyes. I say it was my allergies, other might call them tears. After convincing the boys to go for a walk to find the bathrooms, I was better. Upon returning, the half hour practice was coming to a close (seemed like 2 hours.) We packed into the car and headed home. On the way home I asked Sophie if she wanted to play football instead of cheering. No such luck.
