Ed has been waiting 4 years for THIS?

Monday was Ysabella's first day of soccer. Do I need to remind you what the weather was like here in Ottawa this past Monday? It was raining and a high of 8. A high of 8! It truly couldn't have been any worse.

Ed is coaching Bella's team, and as both her daddy and her coach he has been preparing her, and she has been excited about playing soccer for months. (Do I need to remind anyone how much Ed loves soccer? And how much he has hoped for the last 4 years that his children would love soccer, too?) I'm not sure what happened on Monday, I guess she was just in one of her 4-yr old girl 'moods'. She did nothing but whine and cry the whole time. She complained about how the shin pads were "hurting" her. She cried that her socks were "too tight". She complained that it was raining. She whined that it was cold. Finally, the two of them left the house, and within about 5 minutes, all was well, or so Ed tells me. They walked to the field, they met her teammates, had a practice, the kids ran around and learned some skills and all of this was followed by a short game. By the time I got Alex to sleep and walked over to the field the rain had turned to a mist, but boy, it sure was cold out! Her little hands were frozen despite the fact that I dressed her in layers. (I suppose I should have packed some gloves for her as well! Can you imagine mittens in mid-May?!)

I forgot my cameras, however, I did have my phone.

This was the scene that I arrived to:

Yes, that is Bella on the left. On the ground! With her feet in the air! During the game!

I sent this pic to a friend of mine and the texting conversation kind of went something like this:

Me: Soccer not going so well tonight. Yes, that's her on the left NOT going after the ball! :)
Friend: LOL! Ed must be proud! Early retirement for you guys... She's a natural! :)

Crash! Boom! Bang! (Did you hear that? Those are Ed's dreams...being shattered!)

And here's a few more pics from the game:

And here is Ed comforting Bella after he blew the end of game whistle. Why did he need to comfort her you might ask? Because she didn't get to kick the ball, of course!!!!
This is what she told me. Wha???!!!

Need I say that Ed was heartbroken? In all fairness, the weather was miserable. And Bella was fighting a minor urinary tract infection. Did I mention that it was wet and cold? We are (okay, Ed) is hopeful that her attitude and complete disregard for the game was a one time thing. Or a two-time thing. You see, Wednesday's game wasn't that much better. However, she didn't cry pre-game. That's an improvement, right?

Here's a photo of Bella on Wednesday, posing for me in her Timbits uniform. She actually appears to be excited to head off to the soccer field!

We've come to realize that she's either going to like soccer or she won't. And if she doesn't like it now, we can always revisit the idea when she's a little bit older. For now, she's (mostly) happy to go there and run around with other kids, and we are going to really enjoy watching them. Because there's nothing cuter (or funnier!) than watching a bunch of 4 yr olds chase the ball like a swarm of bees.