Backtrack: Soccer

I just realized that I never posted about Micah's soccer career. We did the YMCA summer season so it was pretty short which ended up being a very good thing. Most places don't do team sports until kids are older and I am thinking there is good reason for that. Sweet Micah... his soccer career was just that, short and sweet. I will be shocked if we can ever get him to play the sport again. He really, and I mean really, did not like it. The season consisted of...

... Doing the opposite of what he was supposed to be doing...

...Watching Archer score goal after goal after goal after goal...

... spurts of participation...

... and then the grand finale, blue cupcakes...

(side note: thanks to oxy clean and much persistence on my part, the jersey survived with no stains)

... and a trophy! That he sleeps with at night. 

Micah is in a phase right now where he is really pushing the limits and takes every opportunity to be defiant. He does NOT like being told what to do. I think that most of his soccer season was a result of this phase. He is completely capable of kicking the ball and scoring goals, he just did not want to do that. He said from the beginning that he didn't want to play soccer and we should've listened to him. Here is some video footage of the season:

Micah's Athletic Debut from Ally S on Vimeo.

Micah has been a blog hog lately so I promise a post about the little lady is coming soon!

Herding Cats

Have you ever been to a soccer game for 3 year olds? If not, I highly recommend it purely for the entertainment. I don't remember the last time I laughed that hard for that long. We knew it wouldn't look like a typical soccer game based on the past few weeks of practice and honestly, I am shocked that the kids did as well as they did! When I started this post, Micah & Archer had only had one game but now they've had 2. The second was pretty much exactly the same as the first. I originally wanted to post video but I think I'll wait until later in the season when it looks a little more like soccer.

The whole thing was a little like herding cats. For the entire game, you have parents and coaches running all over the place trying to

1) diffuse meltdowns due to the loud buzzer (I kid you not, the buzzer was so loud that the first few times it went off, every single kid went into meltdown mode and the other coach threatened to take his team off the floor if they didn't turn it off our down)

2) Guide the kids to kick the ball to the correct goal. Once they finally got it, half time came and they switched sides. I have no idea why they did that. Second game there was so switching and that went much better.

3) Teach the kids that played goalie that they were actually supposed to stop the ball. This is confusing to most of them because all they have heard to this point is "NO HANDS" and "KICK THE BALL INTO THE GOAL".

4) Convince kids that all the cheering and screaming is a good thing and that they aren't in trouble.

I think that the whole experience was more traumatizing than fun but every week on our way home, Micah says "I had fun at my soccer game!" so it must not be too traumatic!

Who knew that playing with the ball bag is actually more fun than the sport itself?

Ready for the pre-game team meeting 

 Micah and Archer's cheering section! Allison, Cason, & Madeleine came to cheer them on as well!

 Mid-game pep talk, post meltdown

 This was towards the end when both boys were just not even wanting to go in.

Smiles were hard to come by but at least they aren't crying!