First Soccer Game, or "the one where I need therapy"

Meet the Pink Piranhas!

These little girls won 4-2 yesterday. It was an awesome victory, as we practiced all summer, and were given tons of help from another experienced team and their generous coach. Ed has teased that alongside that team we have been a bit like the bumbling Bad News Bears. Not yesterday though, when our girls dominated. It was a little bittersweet for me, as I felt all the girls but Paige really did their personal best. (She kicked the ball once.)

Paige has made good strides in her dribbling and passing. Yet she is not a fast runner, and holds on to a fear of getting hurt. (This is a big trend in her bike riding, as it took forever for her to ride WITH training wheels, now we are working slowly on weaning her off of them.) The other day at practice, there was a drill where a parent would lob a ball out, and two girls would chase it down. Whomever got it first would turn it around toward the goal and try to score. The other girl would automatically be on defense and would have to book it back toward the goal. Every time in this drill Paige was second to the ball and had to zip back to defend. This time, she was trying her best, but she thinks too much which slows her down. My heart broke a tiny bit as she really pushed and fell over the other girls' feet as she went for the ball, hitting the ground. Ed and I insisted she 'pop' back up and keep going. And after some brief sweaty tears she did. We were really proud. She got over it and did well the rest of the practice.

I'm always the positive, relaxed mom (I think?). But such a tiger has appeared and taken my place with soccer. Both Ed and I have had to work on giving limited 'pointers,' and focusing on what she has done right.

Anyway, Paige is still enjoying soccer and I think it is character-building for her to fall down and get back up again. (Literally and figuratively.) Apparently, it is also character building for me. The blessing in all of this, is that Ed could care less, and said he was on the bench a ton during his sports career, and it is what it is. We sure are a balance!

Here's to the next game, and me chilling out!