Soccer

Today was my first day as a soccer mom, and Reuel a soccer dad.  Wow, life is moving along with these kiddos!  There was quite a bit of work-up to our first soccer experience today...buying the shoes and shin guards, getting books at the library to acquaint ourselves with the game (since the kids on Owen's team have been doing this for nearly 3 years already and it was his first time!  Here was ignorant me not even knowing that community soccer was going on or we might have started earlier).  The boys got so excited that they made pictures to send to their coaches in the mail...cute.  It was just a wee bit cold to be playing soccer this morning, probably 40 degrees (?), so the boys were in pants and fleeces, gloves and hats under their uniforms and Reuel, Eden and I were coated up.  Both boys were pretty frozen and nervous when we got there, despite macho confidence about how great of soccer players they thought they would be in the week leading up to the first practice/game...ha ha, quickly humbled ;)  When the practice started they warmed right up, though.  Owen is our natural athlete, and he did exactly what one might predict of him...ran his heart out, kept right up with the kids, had fun and he says...got three kicks in the net (there is no scorekeeping).  I didn't see them myself but I am inclined to believe him.  He was so excited by the end of the morning that he said he wants me to sign him up for the fall season (even though this was just the first day of the spring season ;)  Asher also played the role one might expect of him...he and the other 3.5 year olds struggled to stay focused on coaching directives.  Asher was particularly inclined to follow his own path.  Once, he found the cones at the corner of the field and used them as hats and ran around.  Once, he started pretending to be a superhero on the field when dribbling got a little boring.  Once, he started kicking the ball to the wrong goal.  Once, there was a pack of kids around the ball and Asher did what any sane person should do...picked up the ball with his hands, pulled it out from the pack of feet, placed it a few paces away, and happily began kicking it himself!  Ha ha!!  He was the star of the comedy show, that's for sure.  I noticed that if he was dribbling the ball and another child came up and got it away from him he would sort of step back to let them pass.  His playing definitely improved once I pulled him to the side of the field and informed him that in soccer, if the other team takes the ball from you, you can try to get it back and steal it from them!  It is kind of bizarre how much time we spend teaching kids to share and not grab away...which Asher heeds pretty well...and then suddenly they are supposed to do otherwise on the sports field.  Anyway, they were a couple of happy and hungry boys after that and it led to a Saturday of high-spirits.  Unfortunately, I think today was only one of two Saturdays total where they have games at the same time, so we'll be having to go back and forth to the field most days, which is less than ideal, but it seems worth it after a fun experience today :)