Cookie Classic

This morning, the girls got to swim at the YMCA Cookie Classic, a fun meet in which the winners of each race get a cookie (because nothing says hard athletic work like a cookie.)  For each race won, a red ticket was handed to the winner, which could be exchanged for a cookie at the concession stand.  Because the fates were shining down on me today, both girls somehow managed to win exactly three cookies.  Hurrah!  No fighting, no jealousy, no tears!  In fact, Madeleine was sweet enough to think of Julia, even though she had already inhaled her cookies by the time the thought crossed her mind.

MADELEINE: Mommy?  Did Julia get any red tickets?
ME: Yes, she did.
MADELEINE: (visibly relieved) Oh, GOOD.  Because I ate all my cookies, but if I *didn't* eat them yet, I was gonna say, if Julia didn't get any tickets, then I would give her one of mine.

Madeleine pulled off a win in the 50 freestyle, the freestyle relay, and the 25 breast stroke.  It's a darn good thing that the strokes and turn judges seemed to be more lenient with the 8-and-under age group than any other, because somehow Madeleine managed not to get disqualified for her spastic out-of-the water overhand arm flap mid-race:




And Julia won the 100 freestyle, 50 breast stroke, and squeaked out a win in the 50 butterfly, an exciting finish which was unfortunately not captured on video because of the strokes & turn judge walking directly in front of my camera as Julia reached the wall:





Madeleine had a lot of personal best times today, probably because she knew there was a cookie in it for her if she swam her fastest.  Julia, who has been sick all week with a cold and has gotten night upon night of lousy sleep, surprised herself by swimming her best times in several strokes.  At the end of the meet, she participated in a time trial for the 100 butterfly, an event not normally part of YMCA meets, but part of the upcoming New England Championships.  Because Julia will already be swimming the 50 fly at New Englands, her coach wanted to give her a chance to qualify in the 100 fly as well.

Over the past few weeks, Julia has been super cheery and optimistic about her chances of qualifying in this event, saying things like, "I can't even FINISH a 100 butterfly!  I'll be too tired!" and "There's no WAY I can swim it fast enough to make the qualifying time."  In fact, this morning she awoke to tell me, "I'm not gonna swim well in the Cookie meet today because I have a COLD."  Thankfully, not only did Julia manage to finish the whole 100 yards, but she swam it 3 seconds under the New England qualifying time, so despite her sickness and her Debbie Downer attitude, she achieved success.

But, really, the most important thing was that the kids got cookies.  What can be better than that??