Soccer

Kade had his very first organized sports "practice" today.  He's playing soccer every Wednesday morning for the months of February and March!  A couple days ago I started to explain to him that it's just the kids playing and I'd be sitting on the side while he played and listened to the coach.  I knew if he wasn't prepared for that, he'd never leave my side and he'd miss out on all the fun.  

Well...my preparation didn't pay off.  Of course Erik wasn't going to miss Kade's very first "athletic event", so he took the morning off to be there too.  Although Kade did leave my side, he wouldn't leave Erik's.

Ring Around the Rosy, with an extremely shy kid off to the side.

Kid's version of running ladders, with an extremely shy kid off to the side.

A close up of that extremely shy kid.  Yep.  Lots of tears!

Finally I took him into the bathroom and had my usual "shy guy" pep talk with him.  Whenever we go somewhere I tell him, "it's okay to be shy for a little bit but if you keep being shy you'll miss out on doing fun things and you'll regret it later".  Then I went out onto the field with him and did some of the exercises with the rest of the kids.  He started to participate and was having so much fun he didn't even notice when I left the field!

Now it's time for a game!

Kade was on the orange team.

I think it ended in a tie?  Who can be sure when the kids were kicking it into the wrong net and stealing the ball from their own teammates.....ahem, Kade.

In the end it doesn't matter who won or lost, all that matters is the disappearance of tears, the big smile and the really cool stamp on his leg!