Madeleine Being With the Program, as Usual

This evening the girls had swim team practice; Madeleine's group swam for the first hour, and Julia's group for the second hour.  Julia came along with a book to read during Madeleine's workout so that I didn't have to drive back home to get her and bring her back to the Y.  As Madeleine's group was swimming, I took a break from my own reading to watch through the viewing window.

It took me a moment to spot Madeleine because she was repeatedly going underwater while the rest of the team hung on the lane lines to get instructions for their next drill.  Once I spied her, I wondered if she was paying the least bit of attention to what was going on, but since she's a pretty seasoned swim team member, I gave her the benefit of the doubt.  I then watched as all 30+ members of her group began swimming laps of freestyle, as Madeleine launched into breast stroke.  Several laps in, I looked around to see if anyone else was doing breast stroke, but, nope, it was just Madeleine.

ME: (turning to Julia) I think Madeleine's doing the wrong thing.  All the other kids are swimming freestyle but she's doing breast stroke.
JULIA: (looking up from her book) The coaches might've told her to focus on breast stroke for this drill.  Sometimes they do that.

See, even Julia gave her the benefit of the doubt.  But nope.  Turns out she was just spacing out because she'd been off in la-la land before the drill began.  I watched Madeleine reach the wall after another breast stroke lap, pop her head out of the water and smack herself, saying, "Oh, FREESTYLE!" and then launch into the correct stroke.  When the drill was over, I caught her eye and mimicked breast stroking, and she got a look of chagrin on her face and mouthed "Sorry!"

Well, at least that shook her back into reality, right?  Wrong!  Near the end of her practice, when Julia had gone out to the pool deck to get ready for her own group to start, Madeleine pulled another...well, let's just call it another "Madeleine."  I suddenly noticed Julia cracking up and gesturing frantically to me through the viewing window.  I looked out at the pool to see the EXACT SAME THING.  All 30+ swimmers doing freestyle and Madeleine doing breast stroke.  AGAIN.  Didn't this already happen!?  And once again, Madeleine stopped at the wall, smacked her head like a dolt, and corrected herself.  Only this time, the addition of Julia as witness added some extra embarrassment.  I watched her shoot Julia a laser beam death glare as Julia openly folded over laughing near the pool lanes. 

Maybe this means she'll be more with the program at practice tomorrow.  But...then again...that might be a lot to expect from a kid whose brain is practically exploding with imagination.