Swim Team!

As I have written a million times, Cal did swim team last year and is again this year and he loves it.  I have also written a million times about Andy's issues with swimming-- how badly he wants to swim, but then freaks out and won't. 

Well, last week, something clicked. 

We were at the pool and he was swimming like crazy. Totally comfortable in the water, me not panicking every 2 seconds that he was going to go under...and stay under. 

As we left at the end of that day, he looked at me and said, "I am going to swim in the swim meet this week." No discussion about it.  That was it.  And he did not waiver from that stance once.  He told everyone he saw that he was swimming in the meet.  And he did!

Wednesday of last week, the boys had a swim meet.  I kept waiting for Andy to panic or change his mind.

 He loved getting there and getting a "spot" set up.  Usually only Cal gets a spot because little brothers who are just watching don't get to take up additional space.  He LOVED being written on: his name and age on his back, his ID number on his forearm, Go Sharks on his bulging bicep.  He was a proud little guy!

it helps having his buddy Lee there with him.   These 4 boys had a great time together!

It was time to warm up, and Andy jumped right in.  A coach came over and had to help him a few times, which had me super worried.  But when warm ups were over, Andy wouldn't get out of the water-- he wanted to stay and play! ha! He was having a big time.

I started avoiding Andy in case he had a change of heart or his panic grew.  I make that worse in him.  Thankfully, Sally was his age group chaperone so he had the next best thing with him.  But he never panicked.  He was calm and content the whole time leading up to his race.  

Cal swam first in 25 free and did great.   He has improved immensely since last year and we love watching him swim. 

When it was Andy's turn to go, I was quite nervous.  I just didn't want him to freak out in the middle, start to cry and have to have a coach go in after him.  I didn't want him to be scarred into never wanting to swim again.  

So while I was a ball of nerves, he was cool as a cucumber.  

It's hard to see in the next picture, but you can see his striped shorts as he's about to jump in. 

Y'all.  It was the LONGEST minute and a half of my LIFE.  

But you know what? He did it!!!! He swam the whole way-- no tears, no freak outs, no coaches having to pull him off the bottom.  He wasn't fast, but he didn't care! He was swimming his own way. He kept looking around and smiling in between breaths and strokes.

I talked to the head coach before the race and we decided he would stay by me the entire race and as soon as I saw Andy start to freak, I would give him the signal to go get him.  A lot of times, Andy's swimming looks like he is struggling, because, well, he IS struggling! ha! The lifeguard on duty during the meet even got up out of her chair to get him once.  I think she thought we were all going to let him drown.  But then he smiled over at her and kept right on going!

He was pulled out of the water and I hugged him so tight!

I do not care how long it took him to finish that lap.  He overcame his fear and did it!!!!!

 As I hugged him and said how proud I was of him, he looked at me and the very first thing he said was, "I wanna do that again." HA!

Super proud of my little guy.  Swimming in a swim meet as a newly 4 year old is a big deal! There are other 4 year olds on the team, so he's not the only one, but I am just so proud of him!

We have another meet this week, which Andy has already asked to swim in.  He really wants a swim team suit now..... ha!