It seems like all great ideas are born out of need of something.  Indoor soccer season has come and gone and this year, under the influence of my peers, I signed Nic and Dex to play.  I justified it as being a good gross motor skill enhancer and a way to get the boys to interact with others.  Nicholas and Dexter play fantastically well with each other (most of the time) but I would say they still don’t socialize much with kids their own age.  Kids will come talk to them on a play ground and they usually take a step back, look at the social child with a look of “who are you?” and move on to something else.

Anyway, it took a lot of selling, but finally Joel said OK, sign them up.  To give you an indication of how the season went, he’s not letting me sign them up for anything other than swimming for at least a year.  Yep, our expectation changed from “I can’t wait to see them run after the soccer ball and follow the horde around” to, “I hope I can get them to walk out onto the field”.

I’ll start with Nicholas.  I am very proud of him.  He overcame his fear of being bumped into by others, his lack of conditioning, and his frustration of not being able to kick the ball to actually running after the ball, attempting to kick it once or twice, playing goalie and stopping goals a few times.  He found great pride in playing when he felt good and when he was overwhelmed by the noise (indoor soccer is SO LOUD) and other things, he shut down and didn’t want to try.  Good Job Nicky for trying.  His coach awarded him by grabbing the soccer ball in the last game, setting it right in front of the goal and having Nicholas kick it in.  The goalie didn’t stop it and Nicholas scored!

Poor Dexter.  Soccer is not his cup of tea.  He was completely overwhelmed by the noise, by the actions asked to perform, and by the other kids.  He just physically and mentally shut down.  I had never seen this side of Dexter.  The first game, his head hung down, his body slumped and he wouldn’t move.  The game moved around him.  It was a chore to get him to practice but as long as I held his hand, he would try in practice.  By the second game, we told Dexter he did not have to play.  We brought with us his head phones and he sat on my lap and watched Nicky.  At least this time he perked up.  By cutting out the sound, his smile was back and so was his wiggle.  By the last game, I got out there with Dexter and he kicked the ball (by accident – right place at the right time but he kicked it!)  The promise of a donut afterwards was a powerful weapon.  Dexter – you amaze me.  I am so proud of you too.

Here are some pictures of our season.  Sorry it took us so long to write this post but as always – life moves at a brisk pace here in Everett.

And now for the video: