Football

Rachel here.  Reese started soccer two weeks ago.  The first week, she did awesome!  She was like a fish in water... almost like she was born to play soccer.  Home girl scored 4 goals... we were so excited for her.  You could tell she was having so much fun... so much fun.

 This past Friday... totally different story.  My heart hurt for her.  A few members on the other team were super aggressive and REALLY good little players.  She had a hard time getting the ball and missed goals on a few occasions.  She did in fact score one goal... again... we were so proud of her.  Not because she scored a goal at all, but because she was doing something out of her element for the first time... trying something new... and she was proud of herself.  We never ever ever wanted her to feel any type of pressure to be some sort of super star.  That's not what this experience was supposed to be about.  Poor thing missed a goal and grabbed her head and just shook it.  I knew she was frustrated... I could tell immediately.  She stopped, looked right at me, and she ran towards me as fast as she could... fell into my arms and cried.  She said she was so upset that she didn't make her goal and that she wanted to quit and go home.  She was done playing soccer... forever.

After lengthy discussions both with her and with one another (Bryan and I), we've been working on building her self esteem.  She's very outgoing, but she's been playing the whoa is me card quite a bit... my guess is for attention... even if it's negative attention.  We've been doing things with her that she's really good at in hopes she'll feel that she can do things... and do them well.  She also has new chores that she can help us with around the house... she really seems to be enjoying doing her tasks.  The last thing I want to raise is a super arrogant girl, but I also don't want to raise a quitter.  I get easily frustrated, and she's the same way.  It's just another lesson in raising children for us.  We're taking our time with her, trying to make her feel good about what she's doing when we can, and we'll attempt soccer again on Friday.  Raising children is hard.

 Here's what the other two do while Reese is getting her Beckham on...

Children can make you want to scream bloody murder one minute... and then moments later your heart is swelling with warmth and love... children make me bipolar... I'm certain of it. :)