Jeslyn's Journey...and Beyond: My Soccer Star

I should probably start off by saying I don't even like soccer. Seriously. I never have. It's one of the few games I don't understand, and, my whole life I've steered clear of it. Until I reconnected with my husband, I guess. The year we got back together was 2010, so, it was a world cup year. He's a Brazilian, so, soccer is kind of ingrained in his DNA. Although we didn't watch every match, we definitely watched a few of the Brasil matches. It was so cute to see him root for his native country...all excited and super into it. I rooted for them too - just trying to show a little support for my man. But, the truth is...I could have cared less! Football is my game.

Anyway, here we are - 4 years later and it's that time again. The World Cup is all anyone can talk about! And I'll admit it...I like it more this time around than I did last time. I've watched all of Brasil's matches and I've even watched some of the other matches (too bad the USMNT got knocked out today) too. In the past I've thought that soccer was mostly anticlimactic. But, I've felt differently about it while watching this years World Cup. Most all of the matches I've seen are exciting, and, some of them have even come down to penalty kicks! In fact, Brasil's first game in the knockout round came down to penalty kicks! We were away at Noah's Quest during the match, so Alberto recorded it. However, he only recorded it with 30 minutes of extra time. Because the match went into extratime and there were penalty kicks, the recording wasn't long enough to catch all the action! Thank goodness for YouTube. We were able to get video of the penalty kicks, and, Brasil won it 3-2!

Why am I talking about all this? Well, a month or so ago one of the moms in my TV asked if we'd be interested in a soccer mini camp for our kiddos. Her BIL is a soccer coach, and, if there was enough interest, he would put on a mini camp for our kids. There was tons of interest (almost 20 kids total!), so, the camp was scheduled for 7-1/7-3 and 7-8/7-10. Couldn't have been better timing since the World Cup is in full swing! It's been so fun watching some of the matches with Isla and getting her excited for her first soccer experience. Even better, her aunt C and uncle J sent her a Neymar Jr jersey!!! She was in love with it the second she tried it on ;-) It's like all the stars aligned for my Isla! I couldn't be more excited to see her try her hand (or feet, hehe) at soccer for the first time.

Today was the first day of the mini camp and Isla was all decked out in her jersey and ready to play some soccer! She took to it right away, too. Almost immediately she ran off, got a ball, and started kicking it around (aka dribbling). She was so enthusiastic! Seeing the smile on her face was just infectious. My heart was beaming and I was just so proud of my little soccer star. She listened to the coach pretty well, and, didn't have any meltdowns or real "toddler moments" the entire time. They worked on dribbling, kicking to a target, and scoring. It was just the cutest thing I've ever seen! I felt like such a proud mama when the coach came up to talk to Isla and said that she was a natural. It is in her blood, after all. It was such a great experience, and since Alberto couldn't be there, I took tons of photos and lots of video, too. I can't wait to show him!

After the camp was over, we decided to go and play at the playground with Isla's friends for a little while. It sounded like a great idea at first. But, then...well, I started getting anxious, dejected, and sad. During soccer I was focused on Isla and it was very fast paced. Plus I was taking pictures and video like a mad women, so, I didn't have time to look at anyone else or really see anything else. But, now there were babies everywhere. The babies were at soccer camp, too. But, they were well away from me and like I said, I was focused on Isla. I was just having such a hard time mingling and staying present. I even invented a reason to get away and try to give myself a break: I told my mom to watch after Isla while I went to put my purse in the car. I tried to milk that as much as I could. Once I was back, one of my friends came up to give me a hug and chat. When she started talking, I could hear the words that were coming out of her mouth...but, I couldn't focus myself enough to answer the questions she'd asked me. I just felt flustered and I think I was starting to reach my max. It was a blessing in disguise that people started to file out and/or head to other plans and we were sort of the only ones left at the end.

All in all, it was a great morning and I was incredibly happy and proud to be Ms. Isla's mama. But, there's always that cloud...hanging around, waiting to make an appearance. I guess I'm glad I've made some strides in my grief process and I am able to sort of check out when I need to in order to protect myself.

On another note...here are some highlights from today's soccer mini camp!