December 15, 2008

So today I'm going to make up for all the skimpy blogs of late. We actually did something new and picture-worthy this weekend - the boys had their first swim meet. We drove up to Greeley at 7:00 is sub-zero weather for 2 minutes of racing. But I digress...

Alex raced first in the 7 and under 25 meter breast stroke. They had the 25 meter races start at the wrong end of the pool, which was disappointing because the kids didn't dive off the blocks. My kids can actually do that. So here we go, Alex:



Closer up:



And his start:



Uh, he is breast stroking:



And after the race:



Alex did get disqualified - he was doing too many kicks for arm pulls and his hands went below his waist. But he has a great frog kick so I think he may get this stroke soon. It's easy to DQ on, so no biggy.

Adam waiting in the gym to get seated for his heat (see the red marks on his forehead? He wore his googles all day):



The boys' heat for the 7 and under 25 free. Alex is on the left and Adam on the right:



Adam getting ready to start:



And the start:



And Adam free styling (see the splashes? That means he moved his arms or kicked his legs!)



And see the smile? He loves swimming.



And my HUGE mistake of the day, I didn't hand off the video camera to Jeremy. When Adam was 3/4 of the way down the pool, the life guard jumped in, convinced Adam wasn't going to make it. At first I didn't know what was going on. Jeremy said he heard the coach yelling, "Don't touch him! Let him finish!" And when Adam got out of the pool he got the biggest applause of the day. I'm afraid I didn't properly thank the life guard, I was too busy being offended. Why would I put my child in a situation where he might drown? He's made it through countless practices this year with no problems. Did the guard think we were all going to stand there and watch him drown? Anyway, I figure it will make a funny story when Adam goes to the Olympics and breaks all of that Phelps guy's records.

And one of the other moms took this of us waiting (for like 2 hours) for our races:



And on to Monday. Today when Ariel arrived, hair was truly picture worthy:



And 13 minutes later, I got it down to this:



Oh yes, I EARN my paycheck.

So I got all the kids off to school. It took almost an hour round trip to get Ariel to preschool because it was -2 and the roads were pretty slick. When I got home, I found all these penguins on my bed:



They are a cute story because I was looking for possible Hanukah gifts for the Ariel and saw these:



But they are discontinued (I think *all* kid k'nex have been discontinued) and you can only get them off of eBay or amazon for quadruple the original price. Anyway, I mentioned the set at dinner but didn't show the boys any pictures and the next day our house was full of penguins. Who needs a specialty kit?

So the rest of the day was fine. Ariel had a good day at school. Her substitute teacher was Karen, one of Alex's pre-k teachers. She got a kick out of Ariel ("she's a pistol") and said the last time she saw her she wasn't even walking. We got home and Ariel had some mac & cheese and then went down for a nap and actually fell asleep. Hallelujah!