Cool Swim Photos

From the state meet, by my mama:

Accomplishments

Well, allow me to brag a bit:  I am so proud of this girl.  Her life is pretty busy right now (and I know it will just get more so in the future), but she is handling it all quite gracefully at the moment.  On Saturday, she had to play at 8am for her solo instrument competition at school.  She was the only 6th grader to receive an outstanding rating!  

Then we had to whisk her over to the state swim meet, for which she was the only girl in her age group to actually qualify at state level by times (each team could bring its fastest swimmers in each event, even if they didn't qualify by state times).  It wasn't her best meet, but she was still consistent with her season times.  Her relay team cut quite a few seconds, and they were very excited about that. She had a good time. 

Her coaches also selected her as the female All-Star swimmer from her team, which was a special honor.  She just puts her head down and works hard, and that doesn't often get you noticed.  So I'm grateful to her coaches for choosing her.

I'll put some actual swimming shots up soon!  But I just want to say that I am proud...middle school can be kinda rough, and so far she seems to be on a pretty even keel.

State Swim Meet!

The state swim meet in Ft. Dodge, IA, was yesterday for the girls (boys swim today). What a great day! They had so much fun together, and they all swam well! M3 placed 5th out of 18 in the 100 Free and 10th out of 22 in the 50 Free...great results! Her Free Relay team placed 4th out of 13! Her medley relay team did well, too, but I forgot to look at their place. It was just a nice day of being together as a team. All the other swim parents are so nice; the coaches are great; the kids are so impressive. What a great organization we have!

I had the flu, so I barely pulled it together to pack what we needed for Ft. Dodge; therefore, I forgot the camera!! Waaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! But I took some pics with my friend's camera, and I will pressure her to send them to me to post. It is a bit of a let down now that swim season is over, but it will be nice to have our weeknights a bit calmer!

Swimming State

During the swim meet yesterday, M3 qualified for the state meet in her 100m freestyle event! She is very excited and happy so that is cool. I don't think she was necessarily focused on getting to state (which I'm glad about), so it is a great treat for her. For us it means another month of nights at the pool. Oh well. I am working on my swimming, so perhaps I can use that time wisely. In fact, we had parent/child relays yesterday, and I swam freestyle all the way across the pool reasonably quickly without drowning! And I wasn't too far behind the other parents (including M3's coach)! So that is my state.

I tried to get a couple action shots of M3 yesterday:
Didn't do a good job of getting her start:
I have a video I'll post, too.

Unrelated: We got a 600 piece puzzle for Christmas. It took us a while, but it was great fun to work on together. We finished it last night, and the Packers won, so it was a good night!

Down with the crankies! Up with the tree!

OK, got some Christmas shopping done...hope to finish most of it this week so as to actually enjoy the rest of the holiday. My friend Andrea joked with me about forming a "Less is More" support group, but I am all for it!! I feel like one of the few people on the planet not getting all electronics for their kids. I know there are others of us out there...we must band together.

M3 had her first swim meet last Saturday and did a great job! It's always fun to watch her swim. The next meet is at home in Grinnell College's gorgeous new pool. I will definitely try to get some pictures. After the meet, we went and got our tree at our new favorite Christmas tree farm:
Deer: "Whaddya you lookin' at?!"
Reindeer like apples!

Not enough snow for the toboggan, but they tried!

Again with the busy!

So it's been almost a month since I put anything on here. You gotta problem wit' dat??! Two weekends in a row out-of-town: one in KC with the whole family as you can see from the sweet pictures here:




(I love this last pic; it truly displays the cousins' personalities! V doesn't want to be contained...she's always on the go, and O is just chillin'.)

And one in Chicago for Mark's 20th college reunion, hanging with the fantastic Navarro family and getting to see old friends and their children all grown up. Of course, I forgot my camera for that outing. Then we hosted two parties for new Chemistry babies and friends who are moving away (boo!). So now it really feels like summer! M3 is swimming in the mornings, and we have some art and science camp activities coming up. But mostly we're just hanging out...especially at our amazing new aquatic center!! I'll try to get better at posting!

Another fish...

If you had told me even a few months ago that M4 would be swimming on his own in water over his head, I wouldn't have believed you! I think he is just one of those kids that kind of hangs on to the status quo for a while, then takes a giant leap forward developmentally. At his own pace, of course. This should be a fun summer at our new city pool!



Both of the past Saturdays, M and M have made Mark and I breakfast in bed. I'm not sure what we have done to deserve this, but it sure is sweet...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Oh yes, it snowed yesterday! Enough to break us in gently for the shoveling season. I was in Des Moines Christmas shopping all day yesterday with some of my buddies, and I was the designated driver for the trip home. Not so much because of the boozing (although if you need a place to eat in Des Moines, check out Django. So delicious and the Parisian Sidecars...oh my!!), but because I am the one who will drive in the snow. Many years in Wisconsin with a rear-wheel drive Toyota van made me an expert. (Oh, how fondly I think back on all those sand bags I used to pile in the back...and the patented Rock N Roll technique to dislodge your car when you're stuck.)

At any rate, it was not fun. I-80 in the snow...try not to do that. On a positive note, we only saw one car off the road.

In my absence, Mark and the kiddles put up the tree and decorated much of it. I was sorry not to be there, but between M3's swim meet taking up most of Saturday and the aforementioned shopping trip, I was hardly home this weekend! We will decorate more tonight. Yay!

Swim meet update: M3 had a good meet. She tried the 100m Individual Medley for the first time and did great! The IM is cool because they do a lap of all four strokes. It's so neat to see those little ones out there doing the butterfly! If I tried that, I would surely drown.

The roar of the crowd...

M3 had her first swim meet last Saturday. I was glad when she decided to swim again this year. She was on the fence before the season started, and we weren't interested in forcing her to sign up or anything. But I was happy when she decided to sign up, because I know she loves to swim. Plus it's not only a valuable skill to possess, it's a great way to burn off energy in the winter!
So at the meet, M3 anchored the freestyle relay, and it turned into the most exciting race of the day!! The other team was ahead, but the third leg of M3's team made up a good amount of time. When M3 jumped in, she caught up so fast that she touched the wall only hundredths of a second behind the other team. The crowd was yelling so loudly that my eardrums were literally vibrating! I asked M3 if she could hear the crowd in the pool, and she said she could a little. So not only did her team almost beat the opposing team, who were mostly girls in the older part of her age bracket, but they also beat their own other relay team, which was also made up of more older girls as well. Anyway, I was proud she made such a great effort, so bear with my bragging just a bit. :-)

Her affinity for swimming is such a mystery to me. Yesterday, she came to the pool to goof around while M4 had a lesson. She informed me that she wanted to swim an 800 and would I count her laps? Well, she did 36 laps, 900 meters. I had to look up how long that is...more than half a mile! Up next, the English Channel!

Swimming...

Earlier this year, M4 announced that he would like swimming lessons. Wha??!! Well, he had been getting much more comfortable in the water this summer and was even going UNDERWATER! So I was very thrilled to jump right on the bandwagon and hire a college girl to give the kids some lessons.

The first lesson went well...he actually did MUCH more than I expected. Except, toward the end, when she was having him "glide" from her to the wall, and he would get to within about a foot of the wall, I could see the look of terror in his eyes.

So guess what? Lesson #2? Hysterics...I mean, hysterical crying! Like, not-in-control-of-his-body sobbing. So we stopped that lesson early. The college girl looked so completely at a loss as to what to do with this behavior. (Ha ha!! Poor girl! Just a preview of your future life!)

Lesson #3 reportedly went OK (Dad took him). No hysterics despite M4's admittance to being nervous about it. In fact, when I was at his school one day, I noticed a worksheet the kids had filled out hanging on the wall. They had to complete this sentence, "I get butterflies in my stomach when...". M4's completion was, "...when I have swimming lessons."

Cut to lesson #4, this past Sunday. Things seemed fine, no hysterics. Afterward, what to my wondering ears should I hear but "I love swimming lessons!" and "This was the best day of my life!" and "Sometimes when you try something you don't really like it, but then you keep on trying and then you like it!" and continued assertions that "This is the most awesomest day of my life!!"

So even though he had negotiated for "only two more lessons," perhaps we can just keep swimming.

And he put his face in the water!

Last week was M4's spring concert. Doesn't he look thrilled? No really, they were so cute! And he got to play the xylophone. Although he was upset he hadn't worn his tie (clip-on which doesn't match in any way!). For two weeks, the Kindergarteners have had swim lessons. M4 still is terrified of floating, but at least he's (semi-) dunking himself and putting his face in the water for a split second!

(I've been supervising the little boys getting changed for the lessons, which is its own brand of hilarity.) M4 does know how to turn on the camera-ready smile when I ask! Maybe he'll float a bit by the end of lessons!

You can fit three teeth in there!

Finally, the other front tooth came out! It hung on for a loooooooong time....

In other milestones, M4 put his face in the water at his Kindergarten swim lesson today!! Multiple times!! And there was only one moment in which he seemed to be overcome with terror! Baby steps...

It doesn't help that we aren't going to have a pool this summer, because I think it is his summer to learn to swim. The city pool will be closed for the construction of our new aquatic center (which will be awesome), but in the meantime our choices are limited. We could go to the college pool, but who wants to be indoors in the summer? Plus, I've heard it's freezing water, and I'm getting too old for that. We could join the Country Club, but guess what? It's a club based on money. No, thank you. So I think it will be the backyard inflatable and trips to pools in surrounding towns. Guess we can manage that, even though I will probably whine about having to drive 20-30 minutes (sorry, Angelenos)!

Fun with the new camera...finally!

Now I have a computer that can handle modern technology! Finally, I can download videos from my new video camera. So here is a swimming video (from December). Notice the lovely zoom capacity:

P.S. It takes a frakkin' long time, though. Big file, I guess.

Uh oh

M4 has what appears to be a small case of the pukes. He seems to be much better now...at least he's running around making explosion noises and talking about "Dark" Vader. He spent the morning playing at friend's. Hope he doesn't pass the germs along!

M3 and I left at 7:15 a.m. for the second-to-last swim meet. It was an hour away in Knoxville. She scorched the competition in the medley relay! Her team was quite behind. She anchored with the freestyle and just blew past everyone! It was so cool to see. I think they came in second. She seemed kind of tired in her individual events, and then they did well in their freestyle relay, too.

I really just want her to have fun and not feel pressured. The kids I knew who started getting too serious about ballet at a young age burned out young, too. I hope this is something she can have fun with for a long time. Winning helps with the fun factor, of course, but I don't want her to feel too serious about it.

On a separate note, it was definitely the HOTTEST pool room I've been. I thought I was going to pass out...

Little fish

Here's our little fish in her 50 freestyle event last Saturday. Grampa brought his cool mini digital video cam. Thanks, Grampa! She got first in her heat but fourth out of 13 overall. In her 50 backstroke, she got second overall out of 11. She is in the lane just to the right of the cone.

Bring Your Earplugs...

Well, the meet was very fun, and M3 did very well. She came in first in her heat in the freestyle and second in the backstroke. I was totally surprised! She beat her friends who have been swimming "competitively" much longer. So the competitive streak in me yells, "Woohoo!! Way to kick their butts!!" And the rest of me is just glad she had a blast, despite the fact that we were there for a total of SIX hours!! Not counting the two hours it took to drive there and back...ugh. And she had a fever over 102 on Saturday, so I thought we wouldn't end up going at all.

Unfortunately, she was disqualified in her freestyle because she touched the floor when she tried to flip turn, but she really didn't seem to care which is good. The relays went well, too, and it's just so fun to see them out there splatting into the water one after the other. Here's one of the main parts of the fun for her:

P.S. I need some major yoga after sitting on those bleachers for the better part of six hours!! Ow.

First Swim Meet

M3 is participating in her first swim meet ever this Sunday!! She's in four events: 50m free style, 50m backstroke, 100m free relay, and 100m medley relay. She's pretty excited, so I hope she has a good experience. I'm sure she will; she gets to hang out with her friends for four hours straight or something like that (and I think they kinda give ribbons for everything). I get to sit in a pool room with its outstanding acoustics! (I'll bring the earplugs...and my book.)

This was her idea, by the way. We weren't as excited about the huge time commitment for an 8-year old, but she is really having fun. So as long as it stays that way I guess we'll stick with it!

Labor Day

We had a quiet weekend: dinner with friends, more moving and organizing, and a last dose of swimming for the summer! M1 always has to teach on Labor Day, so he truly labored. Hope everyone else had a lovely weekend!


P.S. Sadly, this pool had to be retired to the big inflatable pool in the sky...it had holes the size of Rocky Mountain boulders!

Update

School is going well...M4 loves it, although this morning he announced he was "not going to do" gym class. Good luck with that. With M3, all is sunshine, except that she doesn't seem to have any capri pants for these cool (glorious) mornings. Your guess is as good as mine as to the current location of the box containing her long pants!

Speaking of sunshine, here's a quick look back at our more carefree summer days. Instead of being overwhelmed by piles of belongings randomly scattered all over the house, we could idly sit and watch the kids frolic in the fountain on the Pedestrian Mall in Boulder. Bliss!