Cinco de Mayo Swim Meet

Because of all the people of Mexican heritage who live here in San Antonio, Cinco de Mayo is a big annual celebration. My brother-in-law even comes to town for a soccer tournament every year. Now that Natalie is swimming competitively, she will probably participate in this meet every year also. I'm sure that there are a few things that make this year unique, however.

First of all, I have only photos of Eric because I've pretty much stopped taking pictures of Natalie swimming. After all, how many photos of Natalie swimming do I need? Second, we had to take Eric with us on Friday because he would spend less time in the car this way. Patrick had to go across town to pick up Alex from school and then he had to take Alex to his friend's house. Ten friends total were splitting the cost of a limousine to go to the Eighth Grade Formal Dance, and they were meeting at this friend's house. I was not there so I couldn't take pictures. Of course they had a photographer at the dance, but Alex didn't spend the $5 to get a copy for me. After the dance (he brought a change of clothes to his friend's house), they went to see the new Iron Man 3 movie. Patrick picked him up after the 10 pm movie, so they didn't get home until after 1 am.

I brought a few extra things for Eric to do to keep him busy. I brought a new coloring book that came with four small plastic dinosaurs and a sheet of stickers. Eric decided to stick them on himself. I discouraged him from putting the stickers on his face, especially his nose, but I let him remove the sticker after I got this picture. Instead, he put the stickers on my shirt and his shirt. In the photo below, I guess he decided to roar like a dinosaur or something or other. I don't like to discourage his making faces if he wants to, because I can still record this stage in his life when he makes these faces. As long as he lets me take a picture, I don't really care what face he's making.

I also brought snacks. When I got the kids home from school (I had to pick them up early so we could go to this meet), they shared three mangos that my Mom and brought last weekend. I cut the other two (the last ones) and packed them. Eric ate a pack of fruit chews, shared the mangos with Natalie, a Special K bar, cheese nachos and a bag of Lay's potato chips, and he was still crying that he was hungry. At least by that time Patrick had joined us and they had started selling hotdogs at the concession stand. After that he seemed satisfied and played quietly on the iPad.

Now this last part might not be interesting to anyone but family, so feel free to stop reading. Even for family this might be TMI (too much information). Okay, this is the last warning to stop reading if you want to. ;)

Natalie got her period on Thursday. This is the fourth time she's gotten it since December. The last three times she has not tried to go swimming because of the issues involved with swimming while on your period, specifically using a tampon. She had a bad experience the first time and she didn't want to go there again, but the other times didn't involve a swim meet, only practices. On Thursday, she knew that she had a swim meet the next day. She was willing to try tampons again. We talked about this during lunch when I brought them lunch at school. After lunch I set out on a mission. I went to seven stores looking for a specific type of tampon. I found something that might work, based on the advice of some friends, but I wanted to have an alternative in case that one didn't work. No luck finding the alternative, but then luckily, I didn't need one. No tears this time. No complaints of pain and being uncomfortable. She went swimming Thursday night and she was laughing and socializing normally plus the important part--she seemed to be swimming normally.

I was so happy that she was happy. Patrick and I have said it many times, but Natalie is much harder on herself than we are on her. She WANTED to swim. She did not want this period thing to slow her down. Her various coaches have said that a lot of girls don't even try to swim when they are on their periods. Still, she was a bit more stressed than in the usual swim meet because of this extra thing to worry about. So far she hasn't had any personal bests, but she seems okay with it. No tears like in previous meets. She hasn't been happy with adding time, but at least she is not inconsolable. She knows that she will be in another meet in two weeks.

I'll give a full report of her numbers tomorrow.