Soccer Mom

Isabella had her first soccer game last night -- so I am now officially a Soccer Mom.

If nothing else, Isabella was definitely the most smiley, fun loving player out there. I know you can't really see in this picture, no ball in site, but Isabella is grinning. She cracked me up just running around smiling.

If you have never watched a 4-5 year olds' soccer game, you have to do it. This week, I took pictures, next week I HAVE to take some video. :) I don't know about all programs, but the YMCA is pretty laid back, you have 2 dads for coaches who are also acting as referees, the kids don't understand the rules, so even the out of bounds lines don't matter to them and they pretty much ignore the whistle. As this picture to the left shows. All the parents were having fun as the kids would kick the ball out of bounds, run behind the goal, run around the parents, etc.

Isabella did have a few moments of Daddy being the coach and referee that she would stop and want him to hold her or hug her, she was very upset once when the ball was going out and Daddy kicked it back in, just as she was going to go and kick it. And she did take the most breaks of all the kids, but it seemed much more interesting to be drinking water and playing on the sidelines. :)
A couple times she would take her break and then I would tell her she could go back in and she would do this little weaving run, like she was trying to do some kind of fancy footwork -- several of us parents got a kick out of that.

BUT, in the end, don't buy me a bumper sticker just yet..... at close to the end of the "game" the white team had a little break away, the ball was kicked to the lone player standing by the unmanned goal (they're always unmanned by the way) and where was this player......

looking for bugs, and didn't even budge when that ball flew right passed her. She even got up and showed the other coach, who seemed way to motivated to "win" (we don't keep score, folks -- although Kenny said we smoked them :) and she showed him whatever treasure it was she found, he seemed less than impressed. I said she might not be Daddy's little soccer star, but I was told by our one little "star" player's dad that his son was like that last year and would play until he was distracted by the bird flying by..... so there might be some hope yet. If not, she is going to love entomology. :)