Lynda Loveland: The princess and soccer

It took a couple of years, but we finally convinced my five-year-old to take up a team sport.

She’s already in ballet, but we really wanted her to try a team sport. I think kids can learn some important things from being on a team. If she doesn’t like it at the end of the season, she can be done with it.

Carys is a girly girl through and through. I had a feeling we would run into our first problem with the uniform. Basically it’s not a dress, so that’s the problem. If only they made soccer jerseys that were extra long, fitted through the waist and had some ruffles at the bottom.

Carys was less than thrilled with the shorts so we went the skort route. She completed her outfit with hot pink socks and black shoes with a pink Nike stripe.

She seemed ready to go except when it came time to leave for the game, she said, “I don’t know if I want to play because I don’t want to get tired.” Say what?? I told her no way. She was not going to let her teammates down.

I couldn’t wait to see her play. I was curious to see if she would be dainty or if this competitive instinct would come out of nowhere and take over when she hit the field.

It didn’t take long to show itself. She gets in the game, runs toward the ball, looks up, sees me and with a big smile on her face gives me a huge wave. She finishes by blowing me a kiss and skipping off to join the swarm.

That’s my girl.