Our first soccer season is over, and we've had fun! I have to say that the biggest challenge to this first activity of ours was getting there on time. I had to wake up all four girls from naps to get to practice on time (We paid for an activity to cut naptime short?? What was I thinking??), and I always underestimated how long it would take to gear up two sleepy, cranky kids, change two more kids' diapers, and load all of those kids in the car. Invariably, we were the last to run onto the soccer field. I really need to work on my time management before I'm juggling five kids' activities!
Time on the sidelines during practice often looked like this. The twins were pretty occupied with sippies and their own soccer ball while we watched Megan keep up with the boys on her team, and Bridget play sharks and minnows with her team.
Games on Saturdays were a different variety of chaos.
The first step before getting out the door was getting dressed, Megan's favorite part. This was especially true when her game days coincided with Matt's baseball games. He'd be rushing out the door, and missed a few of her games because of his baseball schedule, but his absences were completely made up by the fact that they coincidentally shared the same number. Thank you, uniform gods! :)
The next step on game days? Getting there. It would seem like an easy task, especially since the games were played on a field in our neighborhood, a short five-minute walk from our house. Of course, like everything else, this simple task was always harder in our case. When Matt was free, it was great! He would help Megan on her bike,
and I would pull the girls in the wagon. Why couldn't they walk? Good question. Pure laziness on their part, I guess. Why walk when your very pregnant mom can pull you? All you need to do is act like you
could run out into the street at any moment, and she'll jump at the chance to contain you, even if it means that she may go into preterm labor from the workout.
Sometimes, Megan was willing to help me out.
But, there was more than one time that I carted all four girls back from the game in the wagon. Megan can definitely squeeze herself in there when she's tired enough!
As for the games themselves, Megan officially made contact with the ball twice! She also played goalie once. And, she did lots of running! Even though she was teamed up with some boys that had been playing soccer for a while, this little beginner wasn't discouraged. She fell more than a few times on the field, and got right back up for more each time. I'm not sure if she'll be overly eager to play soccer in the fall with her kindergarten class, but we gave it a whirl.
We're already on to the next activity - swimming lessons at SI! Megan loves it, and is slated for four weeks of lessons, with lessons four days a week. So far, we've survived week one. There's no wagon involved on the sidelines here, just lots of holding hands and preventing toddlers from jumping in the water. Three more weeks to go, assuming I don't go into labor before those three weeks are up!
