No more babies!

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic about Max's birthday.  He turned 5 yesterday.  The party was great.  Most of the little boys from his class at church were able to attend.  Everyone had a good time.  No tears, no fighting.

But throughout the party I just kept thinking "they are little boys."  Somewhere between the last birthday and this one, my baby disappeared.  He started kindergarten, he can ride a two wheeler, he can write his name (and everyone else's and lots of other words), he knows his address, he can swim the length of the pool. The chubby cheeks have melted away and he's got abs I would be thrilled with!

I am enjoying all of his new discoveries and I love watching him grow.  But it hit me yesterday, our time with babies is over.  With the first two, when they turned 5 the next one was on the way or had just arrived.  This time there is no newer model.  The baby days are over.

Happy Birthday Max!

YPAC Dual Meet 11/12/2011

Nate had his best swim meet yet on Saturday.  He finished in 1st place in every race and had personal best times in every one of them!

One of the things we've been waiting for Nate to "get" is that you have to finish a race really strong, giving it all you have at the end.  Last week, half way through the meet this concept seemed to click with Nate and he finished his last two races with personal best times and won his heat.  On Saturday Nate finished all of his races really hard and it showed!

The best race of the day was the 50 yard Butterfly.  Nate is not a big fan of the Butterfly.  It is the hardest stroke and he struggles with it.  In fact on Friday night when I told him he'd been assigned to swim the  50 Fly he said "no way. I'm not doing it."   I reminded him that being on a team means that you do what the coaches ask.  They have their reasons for assigning certain kids certain events.  You just have to do your best.

I had to give him another little pep talk on Saturday before the race but once the race started I could see he was on his game.  His butterfly looked as good as I've ever seen it. He and another boy from our team were neck and neck the whole race.  Nate really swam hard the last 15 yards and ended up finishing first with a 45.10.  The other boy finished in 45.19.  

The win was a huge victory for Nate's confidence. He swam hard, finished first, and took 13 seconds off his previous best time.  Plus he's never beaten this other swimmer before so it really gave Nate a huge boost of confidence.

He still didn't qualify for the State Meet but he's about 3 seconds from it on the 50 Back and now he's about 5 seconds from it in the 50 Fly.  It's also getting close in the 100 Free.  His next meet is December 10 so hopefully that will be the day!