A birthday and a swim meet

This morning Andrew took the first set of kids (A and Z) to swimming and then came home so he could be here when our moving pods were delivered. I was getting the second set of kids (B and P) ready for swimming when Andrew came home—and it was a good thing he came home when he did because the pods were delivered half an hour earlier than what they stated our expected delivery window to be!

Phoebe was very excited to get to watch the fork lift at work while I braided her hair. 

I took the second set of kids (B and P) to swimming and brought home our two middle swimmers (A and P). Then I went to the dentist and Miriam went back to the pool to pick up the remaining children (Z and B). 

So it was a bit of a swimming circus in the morning.

And I had to get some metal "buttons" for my particularly stubborn teeth...and having braces makes me feel a little bit grumpy. Honestly, we joke about Miriam sometimes because whenever she comes home from getting her braces tightened she needs, like, a three-hour nap to kind of reboot because it just makes her so grumpy. And I...kind of understand that...because...same.

And there are always so many surprises. Like, you might just think you're going in for an ordinary check up and they're like, "Oh, while we have you, we're just going to put a power chain on..." (or whatever).

And, like, sometimes I'm not emotionally prepared for a power chain (or whatever), okay?

So today I was grumpy that I had to get metal attachments (so much for the invisi- part of Invisalign) and elastics. Especially because my Original Plan was to work through twenty sets of trays over the course of forty weeks. That still sounded long to me, but I was like, "Fine. This will be worth it."

Folks, it has been 585 days since I had my braces put on! 

There are only 280 days in 40 weeks. I have been in braces for more than 83 weeks now. I'm so over this whole process. 

I readily admit that I really do have a very stubborn tooth that still needs some fixing, so it's not like it's the dentist's fault. But I still feel a little grumpy about it. 

Couple with that has just been some stress of trying to figure out what to do about my job now that we're moving overseas...and whether and how to continue working...and how to figure out my course schedule and what kind of tuition I will be paying (which depends a bit on what I figure out about my job). And then some things are happening that make me wonder if I even want to continue in that position and what certain things like "free speech" even mean these days when everything feels so stifling. 

Lucky for me there was cake and ice cream when I got home from the dentist. And then I got to have a nap (to try to get over my grumpiness and my cold and have enough energy to make it through the evening's swim meet), which was lovely. 

Here I think I'm laughing because Andrew felt we were singing too slow and began conducting to make us sing faster...but he was holding a big ol' knife so that's what he began using as a baton! So I was like, "How about we put the knife down to conduct..." because sometimes he forgets that he's holding things. 

Later the kids said something about my next birthday "in Doha" and Andrew said somewhat vaguely (and still waving that knife around), "Oh, I don't think she'll be celebrating too many birthdays in Doha..."

We all stared at him and blinked (to...I dunno...communicate that he should explain his thinking).

Andrew looked at me in confusion. 

I raised my eyebrows at him as if to say, "Go on..."

"Because...she has a summer birthday...? So we'll most likely be traveling over her birthday?" he finished. "Is that better?"

"It actually is," I said. "Generally we don't threaten people with not celebrating 'too many' more birthdays whilst twirling a kitchen knife..."

"Oh," he said, putting the knife down again. "Yup. I can see how those actions and those words were...yup. Just traveling. That's all. Many more birthdays. Just not in Doha. Elsewhere. That's all."

Here are the kids all ready to go for a walk with me in the afternoon, but being stopped by some rain (they were concerned about whether or not the swim meet would happen):

But happen it did!

Phoebe was so excited to swim her first event! She wore her "team suit" (which is really just a "regular" swim suit, compared to her long-sleeved swim suits) and was so excited to write her head sheet on her arm. Zoë even gave her a little "speed button" on her hand, which Phoebe then rubbed all over her face. 

There was blue marker everywhere. I haven't quite figured out the magic of applying both sunscreen and permanent marker to my kids in an un-messy way.

Phoebe was also excited to sit in the "bull pen" and eat the snacks she packed (she ate them like it was her full time job).

As you can see, Phoebe had to wait until even #23 to swim. That's a long wait! 

I left her in the bull pen sometimes, but also sat with her sometimes because she felt a little bit lonely and scared (even with all her siblings checking on her—they had to sit in different areas so couldn't stay with her the whole time either). I fortunately decided to check on her right before the storm clouds burst open above us, so I got to stand under the big umbrella with her while I poured (they ran a few events in the rain but eventually had to take a break because it was simply raining too hard to see the strobe or the bottom of the pool...or to hear anything really).

Here's Zoë all lined up for her relay race—she's the one holding her hands out from under the roof to catch the rain drops:

Kids were frolicking all over the deck, splashing in big puddles and so forth, but those kids were already lined up for their relays so they had to huddle in formation while the storm ran its course, which it eventually did (and without any thunder).

Phoebe was glad that I was with her for that part because it was windy and scary and even under the awnings we all got awfully wet.

Let's see...here's Benjamin diving into the pool:

When he was finished with his relay he sat with Phoebe on the benches as she moved up with her heat through the staging area. And then Zoë stood by the block while Phoebe got ready to dive (Zoë was an "exhibition" swimmer today, meaning that her times could count toward qualifying for county, but she couldn't score any points for our team...because she wasn't a declared swimmer...since this meet was supposed to have been swum last week when she was in Tennessee...anywho...Zoë was there swimming tonight and she helped coach Phoebe before her race):

And then she walked over to the end of the pool to cheer her on. And, boy, did Phoebe need that cheering! She's swum across the pool before, but also with a parent or coach a few feet in front of her, encouraging her to keep going. Tonight was her first time going across the pool unattended. 

I was so nervous about it I was just about shaking. I don't know how she managed to do it. But she did!

Here's a video of the race that Andrew took from the sidelines (in case you're interested in watching Phoebe spend 2 minutes to travel 25 yards):

Our coach invited Zoë to come into the restricted section to cheer/coach Phoebe from the side of the pool—she knows how shy Phoebe can be and thought that seeing her sister at the end of the pool would help her to keep swimming. 

I'll admit there were times when I was holding my breath along with Phoebe (while she fumbled to get a good grip on the lane line so she could take a few deep breaths before continuing) and I don't think I was alone. Several of the spectators were rather invested in her journey across the pool—would she make it across without a coach having to jump in to rescue her? 

She ended her race to the whole poolside applauding her and she was so proud of herself! 

She came in absolute last, but she came in alive! It was a hard thing and she did it—so we're proud of her, too! She gets to do it two more times this week (at the mini-meet for the Futures and at the last swim meet of the year).

After her race we cleaned up her spot in the bull pen and brought her over to sit with us. 

Here she is giving Daddy some snuggles:

And here she is having a few short snuggles on my lap before I had to leave to work the second half of the meet (and she had to leave to go home and get ready for bed).

Lucky for us, the pool we competed at this week has eight lanes so the meet really went quite fast. Even with the break we took for the rain, we were finished with everything around 9:30 (which is about an earlier than we usually finish).

Here's a cute picture my friend sent of our boys (the A boys!) getting ready to swim their relay race:

Her poor little boy just realized that our family was moving. He had overheard some conversation his mom was having with someone else and said, "Wait a minute...the Heisses are moving? Like Alex Heiss? Alexander Heiss? That Heiss family? They're moving?!"

Poor little guy. Change is hard. 

Last couple of notes...

First, here's Miriam, a champion cheerleader! She got sunburned within the first ten minutes and then ended up wrapping up in my poncho (while I was under the awning with Phoebe).

Last night she was (jokingly)* trying to get out of doing something...or ask for a privilege or something...I can't remember what...but we were giving her a (jokingly)* hard time...and she said, "Hey—who has stayed the whole time at every swim meet this season?"

"Not you!" I scoffed.

"Have so!" she objected.

"You haven't even been to every meet this season!" I pointed out. "You missed the week when you were at girl's camp and..."

"Oh, yeah..." Miriam said, recalculating her statement. "Well...I've...stayed the whole time at every meet that I've been to...so...there's that..."

And last note:

The Bull Pen Dad came up to me around halftime just to tell me that "my son" (Benjamin) was so helpful in the bull pen this evening. He was helping to find and line up the little swimmers, he hunted down missing swimmers, he organized relays, he walked swimmers to the staging area, he did whatever needed to be done and then returned to ask what else he could do. 

To be fair, he's probably supposed to help do those things anyway because he's a junior coach...but even the junior coaches sometimes forget/neglect what they're supposed to and start goofing off with all the other swimmers, which can make the Bull Pen Parent job quite a bit more difficult. 

It was so lovely to get a glowing report about one of my kids—Benjamin is a pretty awesome junior coach, that's for sure!

* I think we were just trying to work out the whole swimming circus of the morning. Who needed to be up to take the kids to the pool when, and so on...and she didn't want to have to be an early morning shift.