Saturday, October 29, 2011

Soccer Season 2011

 Cade had his last soccer game this afternoon.  I blogged about him starting soccer here, and I talked about how  he wouldn't play because he was so scared.  I just need to brag about my son for a minute, because I'm having a total Proud Mom Moment over here.  Cade started out his soccer season insecure and anxious.  He would rarely play, and when he did, he NEVER actually kicked the ball.  He'd run with the pack, but shy away from the ball.  We'd cheer and encourage him anyway, of course.  (Sorry the quality of this pic is so bad.  It's a picture of a picture, I was too lazy to scan it.)

The last couple games, he has started tentatively kicking the ball, but only when it happens to come right to him; he still wasn't really pursuing it.  We were just happy for him that he was making progress, and we had long ago figured out that our kid was not going to be the star of the soccer team, and we were okay with that.  Putting him in soccer was all about giving him an opportunity to find things he liked and to maybe give him some confidence and help him work on his social skills.

Today, Cade kicked the ball 10 times.  I'm not even kidding, Brandon counted!  And the best moment of all...he scored a goall!  A goal!!!!!!  Words cannot describe how momentous this is.  After he kicked it in the goal, he turned and looked at me and Brandon with this look of shock and awe, like, "Look at this awesome thing I did!  I must be pretty awesome!"  We all cheered and cheered so loudly.  I can't remember feeling that happy and proud for my kid in so long.  Cade needed this.  He needed the confidence booster.  I think now he realizes that he can play soccer just like everybody else, and that he just might be good at it.

So it's been a good day.  As we were leaving the game, Cade even remarked that he'd like to play again - kind of shocked me, as I really thought soccer was going to be a one time experiment for him, but I'm thrilled he wants to do it again.  So, come Spring 2012, we'll sign him up again.   :)

So proud of you Cade.  You have made so much progress and your mama notices and thinks it's pretty awesome.  Love you buddy.

1 comment:

emo said...

Way to go Caden! Those are cute pics of him and his team. I think that is great you got him to try out soccer. I definitely need to get my kids involved with something to try out and they could use socializing with other kids as well.