Swim Season

What a crazy and fun summer it's been so far! Our days have definitely not been slow, mainly due to hitting the pool first thing every morning for Swim Team practice. Add the once/week Swim Meets to that (lasting at least 4 hours each time) and we are never bored!

Eli started off loving to swim freestyle, but detesting backstroke. That is still the same. He improved both strokes from the first to second meet (shaving 10 full seconds off his 25 Freestyle!), but since then has declined a bit. He is holding about the same for his Freestyle, but his backstroke gets a bit slower each week. It's not that he doesn't try; he practices at swim practice and on his own each day. That is his last event each Meet (around 8:30PM), and he still doesn't love it. This last Meet found him barely using his arms at all the last 10 or so of his race...he was just plain tuckered out. But in general, he loves the practices, he loves the Meets, and he LOVES the 'uniform'.

Speaking of that, the navy blue spandex-type swim shorts are almost never dry. Eli wears them to practice, to the pool for fun, and to all of the Meets. At least once a week I sneak them away to wash them, but even that is a task because they are usually on his person.

My favorite thing so far has been Eli's attitude about swimming. Much like in baseball, he doesn't seem to place too much importance on his ranking or winning. Last week he got a 4th place ribbon for the first time (he'd gotten only 2nd and 3rd before that). He looked at me with a huge smile and said, "Sweet! I've almost got one of every kind now!"

Here is a quick video of the kids jumping off of the diving board and then a clip of Eli's backstroke event from last week.



Maddux is too young to participate, but she loves the meets as well. As many of you could guess, she is out there, chatting it up and cheering on her friends the whole time. She plays with the big girls when they're not swimming, but when they're on the blocks or in the pool, she's standing on the sidelines with Lehr and I, yelling, "Go! Go! Go!", or wishing them luck before they hop in the pool, or giving them a high-five when they pull themselves out at the end. She seriously amazes me more and more each week. The little bit of encouraging, positive, outgoing energy that I exhaust each morning at boot camp (leaving none for my 'real life') absolutely oozes out of her pores. Maddux never fails to congratulate someone or encourage someone. Where she gets it, I don't know, but it's totally who she is.

We find a similar trend when we leave each Meet. Maddux has to say good-bye to everyone, even (and especially) her older friends. Ones she sees occasionally at the pool, ones she knows through Eli, ones she's said 'hello' to only once... Social butterfly, extraordinaire!