Fun Friday and the end of babyhood

And it was a good meet after all! 

The kids had some tough events, swimming longer and harder sequences, so they were pretty exhausted (which meant they didn't always break their speed records in their regular events), but overall they did just great!

Alexander walked away with several speed breakers for his backstroke, 25 free, and 50 free—he is making great progress! His freestyle relay came in 6th...of 6...but since they had Alexander (7) and Atlas (6) swimming up with the 9/10 year olds...I think they about got what they paid for.

Zoë got 4th place in her IM, 5th place in the 50 yard free, and 3rd in breast stroke. Her medley relay got 3rd (and her freestyle was DQ'd). Benjamin got 4th place in his IM, 3rd in his 50 yard free, and 6th in his 50 yard backstroke. His medley relay came in 3rd and his freestyle medley came in 2nd. 

It's fun to see them all making improvements and working so hard...and making friends...and having fun...and cheering on their teammates... It's a wild ride, but it's worth it.

Here is Phoebe standing with them. She desperately wants to be on the swim team...so we'll see how she does next year.

She was so excited to get a doughnut today! 

The first Fun Friday they ran out of doughnuts and Phoebe was so upset that Andrew stopped at the grocery store on the way home and picked up some doughnuts. It's been hit or miss the last few fun Fridays, and today was a lucky one for Phoebe: they had doughnuts left over after all the kids had gone through the line so Phoebe got one, too!

We swam after and our little friend from co-op was hanging around me, telling me to watch everything that he can do now. He's been in the juniors program—Benjamin has coached him a couple of times—and he lives in the neighbourhood behind us, so sometimes crosses the creek to ring our doorbell. Anyway...he kept asking me to watch him and was very serious about it, as well, insisting that my eyes were on him when he went to do his trick. 

"Watch me! Watch me! Are you watching this? You're not watching! You gotta look! Hey! Miss Nancy! Look at me! Watch this!"

"I'm watching, V," I reassured him. "But I'm spending most of my energy watching my baby because she's not quite as good of a swimmer as you are."

"Okay," he said, looking around. "You can watch your baby. That's fine...but, uh...where is your baby?"

"She's right here," I said, pointing to Phoebe. 

"Ummmm..." V said. "I don't think that's a baby."

"Well, she's my baby."

(And she reassures me every time she climbs onto my lap for a snuggle that she's always going to be my baby.)

"Well, my baby is in the baby pool and my mom is watching her. She's much smaller than your baby."

"That's true. And Phoebe's turning into a little kid instead of a baby...but she still needs extra attention in the pool."

"Okay. Watch this!"

So I guess that essentially puts the final nail in the coffin of my young mothering years. After 18 years strong, there are officially no recognizable babies in my house. They're all kids. 

And that's okay because they're pretty great kids. 

After swimming at Fun Friday we took the fun over to our pool, along with several other swim team families. We swam for a few more hours and then came home. Next week is going to be completely nuts:

We have two swim meets, as well as morning practices every day. Benjamin has his woodworking camp in the afternoons. And Rachel and Miriam are headed off to girl's camp.

Wish us luck!

*****

And because I'm thinking about how to preserve Phoebe's babyhood, here are some of her cute sayings from today:

One of the older boys on the swim team (who is also an assistant coach for the younger teams) is named Jeremy. Phoebe calls him "Jer-many," which sounds almost like Germany, but with a "Jair" at the beginning instead of a "Ger."

When we asked her what she wanted for dinner she gave us her typical response: "matta-noni and cheese" (instead of macaroni and cheese). Instead we had "floor food" (frozen pizza and chicken nuggets, etc.) and a movie night—we watched the Minecraft movie, which the kids enjoyed. June has brought us a lot of "girl dinner" dinners. It's been a chaotic time. 

While we were on a little walk after the movie, Phoebe used what is perhaps a rather quintessential childhood phrase (I know she's not the first of our children to have used this construction): "but 'cept for" instead of "except for."