First Soccer Game

Apparently, Adilyn's excitement and bravery that she showed in her first soccer practice did not carry over to her first soccer game! I was so surprised how well she had done at her first practice, so I just assumed that the game would be no problem. We talked to her about how all the kids will be in the field together, and that she will need to run to the ball to kick it; we explained that she might get pushed around and might fall down. She seemed okay with all of that. Well, we woke up on Saturday morning at 6:45...game was at 8:00am, and we were all a little tired and grumpy. Lots of things were a little frustrating that morning, but one of the biggest issues was that it was freezing outside! It was really windy, and the temperature was 39 degrees. We were all dressed in our warmest clothes, but it was still sooooo cold out there! Adilyn was not happy about that. We got up to the field, and she did not want to play. I thought that maybe she would change her mind, but she didn't. I took her out on the field 3 times, and she either stood there in her huge winter jacket or she would run off the field to me. I will give it to her...it was chilly!!! She kept saying that she was too cold to move, too cold to play soccer, and to cold to do anything. The coach tried to encourage her to play, but she wasn't having it! We were both pretty annoyed by it. I tried not to really let her see how bugged I was, but it was hard. I tried everything I could to get her out there. I think that I even said something pretending that the soccer ball was a magical princess soccer ball that would give her magic powers if she kicked it. Like I said, she was not having it, and she was not going to even try to play. Now, I will say that as I took Kacy to the bathroom, I did see about 10 kids having meltdowns while their parents tried to "make" them play. :) At least we didn't push that hard! Another girl on Adilyn's team refused to play too, so that made me feel a little better. I don't think that I was really mad at Adilyn, I mean, she is 4, and she wasn't doing it just to bug us. What bothered me the most was that I was so confident after seeing her at practice that she would do so well, and here she was - nervous again! Oh well, we will see how things go this week. Later that day, I talked to her about it. She said that there were too many people out there, that she was just really cold and tired, and that she was scared. Poor girl! I just wanted her to have fun, but I will say that if we have to wake up that early every Saturday for her to sit on the sidelines I will be really irritated! :) Hopefully, things will get better!