Swim Meet

Madeleine and Julia got to swim in a casual, inter-team meet today; Madeleine's first meet ever!  While she may not have been the fastest swimmer in the pool (and was, in fact, the slowest), it was pretty exciting to watch her give it a shot.  The youngest swimmer by at least two years, she got to try out the race atmosphere without the formal rules and disqualification for imperfect strokes that accompany the in-season meets. 

She started the meet off with a 25 yard freestyle:




Madeleine's second and final event was the backstroke:




Julia swam three events, only one of which I got on video, since it was her first 50 yard event, complete with flip turn:




And lest you think the girls are getting TOO grown-up with their abilities to swim independently, I can assure you that they can turn back into two-year-olds in the blink of an eye.

Madeleine, upon being asked by the head coach how she liked her first meet, felt that the appropriate response was to pat the coach on the cheek and then take playful bites out of her hand.

Julia discovered that she had left her clothes, her sneakers, her goggles, her swim cap, her shampoo and her conditioner in a locker at her last practice, which was on THURSDAY.  It was also, not coincidentally, the first time I didn't help her out in the locker room, since I had to leave early and go to Madeleine's end-of-year preschool picnic.  Julia was in charge of her own locker room responsibilities and met Ethan in the lobby afterwards.  Clearly, she didn't even stop to realize any of that stuff had been missing over the past three days until she stumbled upon them in a random locker today.

So, despite their growth on the swimming front, we obviously still have some work to do...