Bend it like Roman

Two years ago, we signed Roman up for soccer. After two games, we pulled him out and asked for a refund. Not that we were giving up on him, but when he insisted on holding the coach's hand throughout the entire game and would cry and run off the field if the coach insisted he "give it a try", we knew it wasn't the right time. My poor, shy, little boy.

This year, luckily, he's grown out of his shell quite a bit. I credit his amazing kindergarten teacher with this. She really pushed for him to make friends and to give him opportunities to do something out of his comfort zone. So when soccer started, he was a little shy for all of ten minutes. After his first practice, his coach (who by the way always had a red face) told me that he was worried at first that Roman wouldn't play much, but he warmed up so quick and was after the ball the whole time. He had huge confidence and (luckily) did not ask to hold the coach's hand. He didn't even care if I watched or not. He was just in it for the game. And I'm glad that I didn't need to watch his every move, because I had two other children who wanted to play on the toys...who cared that Roman was playing beautifully? Not these guys!

Check this out! Hayden learned to swing all by himself. Now when I'm at the park with the kids I have so much free time I don't know what to do with myself (because, of course, Aubrey is afraid of the swings and Roman finds them "boring".)

Roman is in the center-ish area with a blue shirt and tan shorts. I know, not soccer apparel, but it was one of "those" days for me where I didn't realize it was soccer practice day until 5 minutes before we had to be there. At least I got him there, right? He has soccer shoes, so I didn't completely strike out.

So I'm really kind of bummed that the coach's red face didn't show up that well. He's on the far left side with the kiddo in yellow. Roman's soccer class was just that, a class. They scrimmaged together but didn't play other teams. I think he's learned enough to start playing on a team next season. At least the thinks so, and that's all that matters.