First Meet

Where did my baby go? She's growing into a kid.

Eve is participating on a swim team this year for the first time. It's work--swimming all the way across the entire pool when you're six years old (even when you're 46 years old!). Some days she likes it, while other days she hates it. She swam in her first meet yesterday, and she was pretty proud of those numbers on her arm that said she was on the relay team. Her team is really small, and I bet there were only six girls who qualified for the butterfly, but she sported those numbers proudly.

I've said it before, but I love it when my kids do things that are hard for them. Eve complained a little in between warmup laps--"My toe hurts" or "I'm too tired" or "How much longer till we go home?"

But when it was time to line up for the races, she was really excited.

My teeny little six-year-old girl can swim across the entire pool doing a (somewhat modified/somewhat incorrect) butterfly stroke. It took her a long time, but she made it!

And when she finished, she received a pretty green fifth place ribbon! I don't believe in the "trophy for everyone" mentality that permeates kids' sports, but a legitimate ribbon earned in her heat was a prize in her eyes. Her team earned a fourth place ribbon (out of four) in the relay, and she came home smiling.

It's hot here in AZ right now, in case you haven't heard. All we can do is run from AC to AC or jump in a swimming pool, which means I'm really thankful for our community's swim program. I didn't learn to swim until I was 12 (and still didn't learn to swim well), so this experience of teeny people doing real strokes is something I love to watch (even if I have to sit outside for an hour in the 110+ heat!).