4 year olds and soccer

I thought it only seemed fitting to blog about Eli's first organized sport experience since his last soccer game was yesterday.  What a season.  

FYI, this is a LONG post.  If you don't want to read all about my experience with Eli and soccer, just scroll to the pictures....they are at the bottom.  I swear:)

Where to begin.....

Eli was finally old enough to join in some sports this year.  I was so excited to get him signed up for something.  This kid is so active and loves to be outside, so I thought he would love anything we signed him up for.  We went with soccer.  We are a soccer family around here:)  We had to sign up through the YMCA because he was just a few weeks too young to play for AYSO.  It didn't really matter where we put him, we weren't expecting much out of him because he's four and he's never played before:)  We put him on the same team as his best friend, so we figured we'd be set and he'd be pumped and ready to go every week.

Man, my low expectations of soccer for Eli weren't aimed low enough apparently.  I suppose I forgot (or maybe intentionally tried to forget) how hard it is to get Eli out of the house for ANYTHING!  That kid loves to be home.  Not. Even. Kidding.  I'm pretty sure he could not leave our property for 2 weeks straight and be happy as a clam.  Add to that that our first "practice" was during his first week of preschool and he was adjusting to being gone all morning 4 days a week.  That seriously cut into his train playing time!

Needless to say, all those factors combined, getting Eli to soccer was sort of worse than getting cavities filled.  Not to mention that B had soccer practice himself, so I was doing it all solo.  Imagine tears, fits, kicking, ect.  And that was just trying to get the darn shin guards on!  Then I still had to get the other two loaded up in the car.  Before soccer even started I sort of hated it:)  I figured once we got there things would be better.  As much as Eli hates going places, once he's there, he usually does fine.  

This was not the case with soccer.  Practice didn't go much better than getting him there.  He refused to do anything.  Even with his bff there, he just flat out refused.  I was useless because I was ticked off and had to other two to keep an eye on by myself too.  Anytime I'd walk away, Parker would cue the waterworks and Kamdyn would follow me.  So pretty much I was in tears by the end of our first soccer practice for a four year old!!

With that being the start of the season, I definitely had no expectations for Eli when it actually came to game time.  I figured he might be a really great benchwarmer:)  His first game was cancelled due to rain. I was secretly kind of glad because I was dreading getting him dressed and out of the house.  Figured it would be better if daddy was there to help though.  Well, his second game (actually the first he played), B had a soccer tournament:(  So I was flying solo again.  Insert sad music.  Getting Eli out of the house was just as hard as it was for practices.  But we got there.  I hoped he would get going once he saw all his team and got to playing.  Once again, no dice.  I was done with it all.  Pretty much in tears again, I sat him on the bench told him to sit there if was wasn't doing anything and that I was going to watch everyone else.  He was happy to sit there for a while.  But, the guy that runs the group practices (they had a 30 minute practice to teach fundamentals before each game) went up to him and got him to go on the field.  YAY!  I was so glad he was actually doing something.  He actually participated in the whole practice!  I was nervous about game time and whether or not he'd actually do anything.  Thankfully he did.  I was so grateful to the guy that went up to him and got him to go on the field.  Soccer season could have been really long (who am I kidding, it was long enough anyways!) had he not made the effort to go over to him and spend 5 minutes with him on the field before his first game.  

Watching 4 and 5 year olds play soccer is so funny.  Or mabye it's just our four year old.  Eli got to play on the field at the same time as his friend the first game.  He just chased Grey around.  So stinking funny.  He even told us that.  He had fun chasing Grey around:)  After that first game, they never played at the same time again......his coach was probably hoping for better things if they weren't on the field at the same time:)  He never got aggressive and went for the ball.  The only time he kicked the ball all season was when he was practicing or when his coach made him kick in to his teammates:)  He was actually a hoot to watch.  Very easily distracted and could care in the least about what was actually going on on the field.  He just ran behind the pack.  Got distracted by airplanes hopped around.  What a goof.  But he was out there and having fun.  That's all we cared about.  And we got a good laugh every Saturday morning:)  

Soccer for Eli wasn't anything like I expected.  But that's ok.  He actually ended up having a little fun and he was active.  Brian and I could care less if soccer is a sport he likes or not.  We just want our kids to be active and involved in stuff.  We gotta start somewhere.  So maybe soccer isn't for him.  And maybe we will try something different next year.  Oh boy, I'm dreading it already.....

Anyways, the Bumblebees (his team:)) ended up being undefeated (I think....so not one of those moms that keeps track of that stuff.  I was just glad we could get him on the field for 12 minutes of every game!  The little things in life....).  I'm hoping if we decide to do something next year it's not so much of a challenge to get him to participate since he's used to it now.

And for reading that very long post, enjoy some pictures from his first game!