Well, at least she looked cute...

This evening, Grace started soccer! Her "team" includes 9 other 3- and 4-year olds and is one of 4 teams in the Hudson Hummingbirds league.We got lucky and found soccer cleats, shin guards, and shorts for $10 from someone whose daughter wore them once and hated soccer so she never played again. When I bought them for her I secretly thought, "I hope we have better luck than they did".

Hey, this is soccer. No hands!

And, boy did Grace look cute! It took two of us to put on her soccer socks and shoes as the princess just sat on the couch and watched us struggle to make it all work and not cut off the circulation in her legs.

Getting her blue team shirt

When we arrived at the field (which is behind the high school where I work), there were about 40 kids running around in orange, purple, blue, and grey T-shirts. The coaches seemed to be college students and they were pretty good at relating to preschoolers. I liked how they made everything into a game, talked to the kids at their level, and let them participate to whatever extent they wanted.

Watching from the goal.

That was good for Grace because....I was really hopeful that Grace would love it, but when we arrived, she was really nervous and wouldn't participate with the other kids. I'll admit, I got pretty frustrated with her. I wanted her to jump right in, run out there, get active, and show off. But, that was an unrealistic expectation. Thank goodness Kyle was there. I needed to walk away and he stuck with her, made her feel secure, and encouraged her to try once she warmed up.

How cute is this?

It took about 30 minutes of watching from a distance, 15 minutes of standing near the other kids but not really participating....

Notice Grace on the right

.....until all of a sudden she joined the group.

And the next time I looked she was running and playing.We both tried to praise and encourage her when she kicked the ball. I am not sure she understood that she was supposed to chase the ball and "steal" it from the other kids as they ran toward a goal. I think some kids "got it" but Grace was either too distracted or not really interested in the objective of the game. It is really too soon to tell.As we were leaving we asked her, "How was soccer?' and she replied, "It's good." And she said she wants to go back again. Kyle predicts every week will be like this one - with her watching for a long time until she is ready to try. Well, she has always been an observer. Even when she was 4 months old we could see how she watched everything going on. Once Grace is comfortable, she doesn't hesitate to join in. So, we'll keep going back until that happens.