First Swim Meet of the Summer Season

Today was the first meet of the summer season AND Eric's first ever swim meet. He has not worn a swim cap yet, so when I put it on him, I had to chuckle because the cap pushes his face down so that he looks more "Asian". Of course Natalie responded to that by saying, "But Mama, he IS Asian." Yes, Dear, but he can barely open his eyes now.

This photo also shows Eric eating a giant chocolate chocolate chip muffin. As soon as Natalie saw that muffin at the concession stand, she had to have it. She did agree, as did Eric, to eat a breakfast taco first. I tried to make them wait until after some of their races, but Natalie had five, including one of the last events of the whole meet, so I couldn't hold her back for too long. Together, the four of us (including Patrick) bought a total of $42 worth of items from the concession stand. To be fair, we bought probably at least eight of the small Gatorade bottles, and those were $1.25 apiece. The rest of the time they ate a variety of foods, like nachos, pizza, fruit-rollups, and ring pops. I couldn't talk them into eating anything healthy, except for one time when Natalie actually got some orange slices. They're lucky that they can handle that type of food right before their races.

Natalie was reluctant to get her photo taken as usual, but I was designated the "team photographer" again, so I had to keep taking photos. That was my excuse and I'm sticking to it. ;) I took over 200 photos, but I only saved 123. Most were of other kids and adults, but I managed to take a few of my beautiful children.

First I'll summarize the results of Natalie and Eric's races, then I'll go into the details.

Eric swam in the following events:
Boys 5-6 25 meter Freestyle--1:04.84--11th out of 11 places
Boys 5-6 25 meter Backstroke--1:03.94--3rd out of 4 places

Natalie swam in the following events, in the order she swam them:
Girls 13-14 200 meter Freestyle relay--2nd out of 2 places
Girls 9-10 25 meter Freestyle--1st out of 14 places
Girls 13-14 100 meter IM--1st out of 6 places
Girls 9-10 25 meter Butterfly--1st out of 6 places
Girls 9-10 100 meter Medley Relay--1st out of 2 places

This is Eric showing off his heat ribbon after his first swim meet race ever--the 25 meter freestyle. He was given a fourth place heat ribbon for both of his races, but he ended up actually being in third place in the backstroke. I'm not sure what happened there, but he was pretty excited to just be swimming. The beautiful girl next to him is Sofia, the 6-year-old daughter of our good friends. Sofia and Eric are good buddies as well. The rest of the time Eric hung out with his friend John Daniel, who lives across the street from us. John Daniel is 8 years old and is swimming on the swim team for the first time too. They were quite a pair.

Patrick and I are so happy with Eric's swimming today. Sure, he's not the fastest by far, but he can swim across the pool without holding on to anything and without stopping. Even with the freestyle, earlier this year he often had to turn onto his back to rest several times before proceeding across the pool. He even did that at the first swim practice three weeks ago. He doesn't have to do that anymore. When we first moved to this neighborhood 11 years ago, Anthony couldn't swim across the pool either, until he joined the swim team. Eric loves swimming. We don't expect that he'll want to be in a swim club like Natalie, but at least he's on the road to enjoying swimming as a lifetime activity.

I've mostly stopped taking pictures of Natalie during swim meets because, after all, how many of these photos do I need? I went ahead and took photos today, because at least in the summer swim season, the meets are outdoors with better lighting, and I can still see the way her face is changing over time. This is her least favorite stroke too--the breaststroke, but she did a great job with it during the IM.

Notice that Natalie swam up two age groups in two out of five of her races. Several of the older boys and girls were not at this meet for whatever reason. We don't have that many older swimmers as it is, since they start getting busier with other things at that age and they don't want to be on the swim team anymore. Coach Jesse knows that Natalie swim club elsewhere, and she swam up a couple of times last year as well. Natalie knew she would be less likely to win those races because, frankly, the older girls, even if they don't swim club, are bigger and stronger and therefore faster. At least for today, we were wrong.

Her first race was the 100 meter Freestyle relay. She swam the third leg, and I don't think this is just her proud Mama talking, but she appeared to swim faster than the other girls on her team. Patrick agreed. Her relay team was behind when she got in the water, she totally caught up and passed the other team during her leg of the race, and her team fell behind again after her leg and eventually lost by two seconds. Now, it could have been that the girl swimming the third leg on the other relay team was their slowest swimmer, but a Mama can think what she wants, right? Coach Jesse clocked her leg at about 36 seconds, which is the fastest that she has swum the 50 meter freestyle before. She was pretty excited.

We were even more impressed with Natalie during the 100 meter IM. She raced against 13 and 14-year-olds and one 12-year-old who is on our neighborhood team and who also swims club. Natalie has had faster times against her before in a swim club meet. This is one race that I wish I would have videotaped. Natalie was leading through the butterfly and backstroke legs. Those are her best strokes. She started losing ground to the 14-year-old in the lane next to her during the breaststroke, but held on to out-touch her by 0.25 seconds. I couldn't even see the finish because I was on the other side of the pool, but I could tell from the reaction of the people on the other end who the winner was. Natalie was so out of breath when I saw her after the race, but she definitely looked exhilarated by her exciting win.

Sometimes it might seem like bragging when I write one of these blog posts, and in a way it is. This blog is my way of record-keeping nowadays instead of scrapbooking, so I reserve that right to brag like I would on a scrapbook page. Patrick and I are very proud of our two swimmers today.