soccer season is here!

matt and i aren't ex-soccer-stars/wannabes (i actually just found out that he had played at all).  somehow madelyn has had it in her head for some time that she is a soccer star.  she tells people all the time that she is really good at soccer and kicks a ball around at every opprotunity.  her big 'trick' right now is kicking the ball backwards with her heal.  i must say that she is impressingly coordinated and good at running with the ball.  (i say "imprssingly coordinated" because this is the same child who has been extremely accident prone her whole life.)

i almost missed the sign-up deadline and practically held my breath waiting to see if she was going to get on a team, but she did and today was her first practice. she has been talking about it all week and could not wait to go.  i decided not to get her any 'equipment' until after the practice so that we could find out what all she really needed.  the league is fairly large with about 30-34 kindergarten teams (madelyn's age group)!  thankfully the kindergartners play on the indoor field when the weather is bad - and it was today.

madelyn asked me to make a video of her saying "first day of soccer" and i tried to get her to hold still for a picture - this was the best one because of the ways she was wiggling and contorting her body with excitement.

once we got to the field, we went upstairs to buy her a team jersey (they are reversible for home and visitor and the same for every team).  it was pretty crowded so matt sat on the bleachers upstairs with the boys to watch and i took madelyn down to the field to find her team.  she was pretty happy that this 'girly' ball was not being used and claimed it as her own for the rest of the practice.

the practice started with all of the teams (not 'all' the teams because there were 4 or 5 time slots for kindergarten practice) circling up for a lesson in kicking the ball by making an "h" with their leg.  madelyn is near the middle of this picture.  her coach is standing next to her in the grey sweatshirt.  there were a lot of kids so i told madelyn to just stay with her coach.  she cried as she walked away because she didn't know the other kids and couldn't find someone to sit next to.  a set of parents (i have already dubbed them the 'know it all parents') thought that she was crying because i left her and started to give me advice about how important it was to keep signing her up for things like this and that she would be okay - they went through the same thing with their son (their daughter is on madelyn's team).  i just smiled politely.

here is madelyn doing a passing drill with another girl on the team (not belonging to the parents referenced above).  she is going to need to work on not touching the ball with her hands.

and then madelyn got to try dribbling up the field to kick the ball into the goal - she cried when she missed (in the first video).  i wonder where she gets those perfectionistic tendencies and self-imposed pressure?

she talked about how much she loved practice for the rest of the day and literally can not wait for next week's practice.  after that, she will have games every saturday.

we went to buy her some gear after lunch.  she agreed to gender neutral gear for the socks, shin guards and shorts.  she was on board for red or blue striped cleats (but we are going to borrow some pink ones from neighbors instead).  where we couldn't sway her was the ball.  she really, really, really wanted a pink one.  and she wasn't willing to get the one that was on clearance either (it had too much white on it).  so we explained to her that daddy and mommy were only willing to pay 8 dollars (and we told her that we would have paid more for a ball the boys would be willing to use) and the one she wanted was 15 so she would have to come up with some way to come up with the extra 7 dollars.  we discussed not getting a kids' meal the next time we went to a fast food restaurant or a treat some time, but she arrived at giving us the money out of her piggy bank (she really, really, really wanted that specific pink ball).  and right when we got home, she helped count out the money (and was delighted that it didn't require all of her piggy bank money).  i think she is a little proud that she was able to help with the purchase (she is pretty into saving her money for 'something big' lately) and wrote her name on the ball herself so that people would know that it was hers.

it looks like we are in for a pretty fun season.  matt and i are both fans of team sports and hope that they benefit our kids as much as they have benefited us.  plus, she is terribly cute.  love.