Week 1: Everyone's happy and meeting the coach and learning names. Nolan sits in the circle on the field for a while (with Dennis next to him). He cries some. He does a soccer exercise or two and I'm super pumped. Then he freaks out after the first 20 minutes and stops. He demands donuts if we want him to continue with practice. Being the awesome parents we are, we basically tell him we will give him every donut in the universe. He goes back to practice for a few minutes. Walks off the field, cries, runs away and doesn't return to practice. I hang my head and apologize to the coach. No donut was given.
[so happy]
[right before the breakdown]
Week 2: The WORST. I'm pretty sure we started bribing him with donuts a day before his actual soccer practice. He was tired and cranky and hated everyone. He yelled at us, the couch, and his team mates, folded his arms over his chest, gave a stank face and walked off the field. He ran off more times than I can count. He said he was hungry and just wanted to go home. In all honesty, I got home and was a bit more upset than I probably should have been. It was like I was back in highschool..."you made me mad so I'm going to ignore you and stomp around". I already told you how awesome of a parent I am.
I may or may not have thought about bringing a dozen donuts and waving them at him from the sidelines.
Week 3: I was terrified. I made sure to bring tons of snacks and even bought him his very own special sports drink bottle thingy for their water breaks. Started off strong, as usual, had Dennis sit in the circle with him. He answered the coach's questions and when it came time for the practices he did them, almost every single one of them for the entire 45 minutes. He did have a few minor temper tantrums, most demanding donuts or coke in his water bottle (which we don't even drink so not sure where that demand came from). He carried his soccer ball in one hand and his water bottle in the other and as long as you didn't tell him he had to put his water bottle down things were pretty awesome. He made some goals and we screamed so loud for him and the hug at the end of practive was unlike any other hug. We took him to Red Robin for his fave macaroni and cheese and didn't even need any donuts or coke!
[water bottle, check. ball, check]
[analyzing the contents of his water bottle, gatorade was not good enough for him]
It should be noted: Hours after soccer practice Nolan was moaning and crying on the floor in my hall way at 1:30am with a 103.5 fever. Some may argue that he was behaving himself because he was sick, I on the other hand chose to think that he really thought about his previous actions at soccer and decided that he needed to be respectful to all involved and give it a go.
[sorry for the overly long post about freaking soccer]
