One Step Forward, One Step Back

Soccer has been interesting thus far. We've had crying, whining, sitting and refusing to budge, and all out tantrums. Part of that was the lovely double ear infection that Brenden was sporting for awhile. (This was the first time he told us his ears hurt and was right. His doctor said he was crazy tough because "most kids would be laying on the floor crying with that type of infection.") The rest was Brenden just not understanding the game. Four years of telling him to share and then expecting him to be okay with someone take a ball away from him was difficult. My bad!

He's had some good days since then, but we've been trying to get him to actually play for the past few weeks. Until now we've been happy if he makes it through a game without crying. Now, we'd like him to actually try to go for the ball instead of just running around staring at his shadow. We promised that we would let him play the Wii if he tried to score a goal. We even promised to buy him a blue slush, his favorite, if he tried really hard the whole game.

I know this may sound like a lot to ask of a 4-year-old, and sometimes I think it is, too. It's just hard to watch the other teams score goal after goal and then our team doesn't manage to score one, even when the other team backs off and lets them score. All of the other teams are so tall compared to the kids on his team and I know that makes a difference. Brenden is the only one that is 4. The rest are 3 years old and we have two that are actually 2. Truthfully, I don't think that's fair, but that's something we can't change.

Onto this past Saturday. We had high hopes since he seemed so excited to play. We cheered and pointed and flung ourselves around like crazy people trying to motivate him to just try his hardest. Eventually, he made a break for the goal and we were jumping up and down like fools...and then a kid from the other team kicked the ball out of bounds. Brenden's entire face fell and he ran off of the field sobbing. We never quite convinced him that it was okay, but we did manage to get him back on the field.

He stole the ball a second time and headed towards the goal...the wrong goal. We tried to tell him to turn around but it was too late. He happily kicked the ball squarely into the net and turned around beaming. We all laughed and cheered as he ran off of the field, pumping his fist in the air. He decided that he deserved a victory lap down the sideline and managed to give every single spectator a high-five.

After that, he was done. He had scored his one goal and was more than happy to sit and watch the rest of the game. I'm still not sure what will convince him to actually play, but we're going to keep trying.

Happy kid, running through the tunnel after the game. :)

We're really ready for him to be able to play football. If there's one thing that Brenden has always been good at, it's knocking people down.

Soccer Progress!

I was afraid this morning. After last weekend's cryfest, I just knew today was going to be awful.

I was completely, totally wrong. YAY!

Brenden very happily ran onto the field, tear free, telling everyone that he was going to get blue soccer socks. (His reward for an entire game without crying.) The only thing he even started to whine about was not getting to use his own ball, but that lasted maybe 2 seconds.

Did our team score a single goal? No. We have the most timid team ever. Did Brenden pay attention to where the ball was? No. He was more concerned with running with his "new best friend" Billy or watching his shadow. Did Lauren sit and watch the game? Heck no. She played in the car, which we learned was the easiest thing to do with her. We could still watch because we parked close to the field and we switched off so one of us was out there for Brenden.

Did we have fun? You better believe it! Little kid soccer is one of the funniest things ever.

Just watch:

Bunch Ball!

Love it!

First Soccer Game (AKA: DISASTER)

You know those days when everyone wakes up happy and everything is sunshine and rainbows and oh-my-gosh-this-is-why-I-had-children? Today was not one of those days.

Having to set an alarm on a Saturday morning is never fun, but we didn't think we would need it. Brenden is usually up long before 7 am, which would have been just fine today. Oh no...not this morning. We had to open his door and make a ton of noise to finally wake him up closer to 7:30 am. (Yes, I know that is a weird way to wake him up. However, we've found it to be much easier than actually going in there and getting him up. No idea why.) We begged Brenden to eat a granola bar, shoved a banana at Lauren, grabbed our coffees, and headed out the door for Brenden's first soccer game.

I knew Lauren would be a problem. I expected her to freak out and be crazy because we wouldn't let her play. I did not expect Brenden to FREAK OUT the moment the game started because someone kicked the ball away from him. All of those lectures about sharing and taking turns really stuck in his head so he could not understand why suddenly it was okay for someone to kick the ball away from him. He spent most of the game crying, some of it sitting down with us, and a small percentage of it actually playing and having fun.

"But I want the ball!"

During all of this, Lauren managed to knock my coffee over onto my already malfunctioning camera. (Why, camera, why!?!) She screamed. She kicked. She threw banana everywhere. This led us to decide that, even though it stinks, to save our sanity one of us will stay at home with her for his games.

It wasn't all bad. For a few minutes Brenden decided to have fun and he scored the only goal for his team. He ran all the way back to Tim, fist pumping high in the air, with the biggest smile on his face. I thought he would enjoy the rest of the game, but he went right back to being upset over who knows what.

Getting ready to kick off.

And of course, no soccer game would be complete without someone making a spectacular dive out of a tiny bump. Brenden has mastered this and he did not disappoint. Another player brushed against him and he flung himself sideways like he had been punched. We couldn't help but laugh.

Brenden is at the front. Go Brenden!

We're going to watch as much soccer as possible and talk to him about how the game will be. I guess for his first game ever it wasn't completely terrible, but it was plenty stressful. Our fingers and toes are crossed for a lot more fun and a lot less tears next week.