Our first official sport experience! We signed Charlotte up for swim team, and it was definitely a whole family affair. June 1st-July 23, practice 4 days a week, a meet every Thursday evening. And a worried girl freaking out from 6:30-10am almost every practice day. But my goal was to have one totally confidant swimmer and I definitely have that. I think it was worth it, but I'm not ready to say we're doing it next year. I do want each of my kids to do it at least one year though. Charlotte's taken lessons every summer since 2011- so 4 years and she knew the strokes and could swim across a regular backyard pool but at least once every time we would go swimming she would think she was drowning. I was ready for her to be completely confidant and independent since I still have 3 younger kids who need lots of help. I feel like a lot of it is just getting tall enough to touch the bottom honestly but swimming skills do help.
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| Auntie Marti came to her first meet, Auntie Audrey came to one too, I didn't get a picture though! |
The meets were her favorite! She loved getting the ribbons and she made the relay team every single time. She would love to show off her race number on her arm to people. She is a competitive kid, she looks very determined when she swims. One dad said, "She is fierce!" The only race she didn't seem as competitive was the championship! I was surprised she did as well as she did, she was one of the older kids even though it was her first year doing it.
Charlotte is excellent at getting herself completely ready, sunscreen and all and then bugging the rest of us to get ready too!
Waiting for her relay race
Her good friend Aspen that we traded driving to swim and watching the little ones at home. Most parents just drop their kids off after the first couple of days. Charlotte was such a stress ball that she wanted me there the whole time, the whole 2 months. Thankfully Sunny (Aspen's mom) wanted to trade off too so we only had to sit in the heat every other day and our little ones would have a play date for an hour. Miles and her little boy Elijah are more like siblings than friends now! We are super grateful for them! Finally the last week she let me drop her off after lots of bribery, coaxing and punishment.
I asked Charlotte where my ribbon was for sitting in the heat and helping her calm down every day so she made me this. I LOVE it!
We missed a few days to go to Cornville and San Diego. It was nice to have Charlotte swim for 45 minutes every day but I felt more tied up with a commitment between 10-10:45 4 days a week , then Mile's naps in the afternoon. I only have about 1 outing in me a day anyway. There was much less days with nothing to do, less library, museum, and splashpad outings. I felt like summer didn't really start until the end of July. I don't know if I want to be that busy every summer.
Here is her tally so we can remember them-
Freetstyle 7th place indiv, 1st place relay
Backstroke (her favorite) 4th place indiv, 3rd place relay
Butterfly 4th place indiv., 3rd place relay
Breaststroke 4th indiv., 1st relay
Divisional Freestyle 14th, Backstroke 9th Her times improved a ton from her first meets to divisional.
Championship Freestyle 16th, Backstroke 16th They didn't have times for the championship I was curious to see if she was much slower or if the other girls were just faster than the divisional ;-(
Proud of this girl! And glad to be done!
I feel the same way and we just did swim lessons. 4 days a week with having to be somewhere on time just kills me and I only have 2 kids! This year we only did two weeks of swim instead of the 4 we did last year. I'm glad Charlotte is confident now though!
ReplyDeleteI love the ribbons Charlotte made for YOU! You deserve them.
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