Catie joined the swim team this year.
And then, what happened? Seriously. What happened to our schedule, our free time, and our sanity?
Swim team is CRAZY. I’m here to tell you only crazy people do this.
Crazy people who attend practice EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Up until now, we could barely make it to Sam’s tball practice and Elisabeth’s ballet. These meet every week. And every week, when I deliver my child to the practice, I feel like I’m supermom for getting them there ON TIME and IN UNIFORM.
Needless to say, when the Serious Swim People told me practice was everyday (sometimes at 7:30 in the morning), I asked if any of the practices were optional. Because, who does this?
Serious Swim People do, that’s who. Since I’m sure you’re wondering, asking about optional practices has firmly placed me outside the group of Serious Swim People. There’s a lot of talk about who’s doing extra practices and how to improve your kids time, and I’m like, “Anyone else want to skip practice tomorrow?”
Because, again, every day with dragging all the other kids to the pool they can’t swim in.
And the HEAT!
Then Saturday was Catie’s first swim meet. For reasons listed above, no one had considered her to be that fierce of a competitor. So, when they placed her in “heats” (this is what Serious Swim People call races. Or something like that) they placed her in the middle range, reserved for average swimmers. Or for those swimmers with parents who don’t pay for EXTRA PRACTICES.
Then Catie had her first meet. And, who knew? She smoked the competition. All the Serious Swim People freaked out because she won races. No one was more surprised than M and me because we hadn’t been paying much attention during ALL THOSE PRACTICES. (See note about babysitting two five-year-olds and a two-year-old next to the pool they can’t swim in).
The Serious Swim People were like, “Wow. We had totally guessed you would be a slacker like your parents. But you’re not! Yea!”
They all cheered for her a bunch and everyone started paying attention when she raced.
Which, I’m here to tell you, Catie LOVED. It was her moment in the sun–literally, since it was 200 degrees at the Swim Meet.
The picture below shows it all. Catie won the backstroke. Here are the timers TRIPLE ANNOUNCING her time. Truly. This is craziness.
If you could see Catie’s face in this picture, you could see her beaming. This girl loves nothing than pleasing people and attention (who doesn’t love that?), so she couldn’t get enough of their excitement.
This would all be wonderful news. Except now Catie is like, “I love swim team practice!” and “Can I go to tjpse extra practices?”
This newfound love of sports really contradicts our sports philosophy of barely limping along. So, it looks like we’re into this for reals. It looks like we may have to become Serious Swim People.
Just in time for those 7:30 AM practices.
Swell.
Yea! for Catie — I knew there was a sporty kid among your crew. So proud of her.
Awesome!!! Carly is doing it this year, and you are right…there are some crazies out there.