different strokes

"i saw 'swim team sign-ups' on the calendar for saturday," chris said to me over the phone a few weeks back.  "what does that mean?"

"well, it means that i'm taking the kids to the club for swim team sign-ups," i replied.  (this man went to college.  and he speaks english.  i wasn't quite sure what the confusion was about.)

silence.  and then, "so we're doing swim team this year?"

"i thought we'd try it.  i grew up doing swim team, and i know you did too."

"sara, did you like swim team?"

"oh hell no.  i hated it."

"so did i," he replied.  "which brings me back to my original question.  what does 'swim team sign-ups' mean, exactly?"

i sighed.  he had a point.  i really had no business diving into (pun intended) such a big family commitment if i weren't fully convinced myself.  but i just felt like we needed to give it a shot.  it's like a rite of passage or something -- doesn't every child in america participate on a swim team at some point?  doesn't every child need the experience of screaming at the top of their lungs for teammates in the water who can barely hear them, and crowding under the shelter when the inevitable thunder delay comes, and licking their bright blue fingers that are stained with jello powder?  and doesn't every parent want a picture of their soaking wet child proudly holding up a ribbon?  (note: my childhood pictures only involve orange participant ribbons.  i don't think i even knew there were other colors until i was a teenager.  but man, was i proud of those suckers.)

so, sign up we did, knowing that if it turned out to be a debacle, we'd have the option of backing out.  and after a few hiccups, the kids are doing great.  susanna is happily participating in the "little dippers" group, which is comprised mostly of 4-year olds, but she's becoming more and more comfortable in the water and will likely move up to the 7-8 age group in a few weeks.  (this is the girl who was swimming circles all over the pool at the end of the summer last year -- she even chose the name "diving dolphin" for Y princesses because of it -- but who swore she was "drownding" at the swim placement test.)

liam has only made one swim team practice so far because we're in this crazy overlapping of sports seasons where every single one of his teams is still meeting.  (just out of curiosity, i counted it up last week, and he had SIXTEEN practices or games.  sixteen!  in seven days!   insanity!)  add that to the fact that he hasn't had a swim lesson in probably three years, and i knew that the mock meet last night would prove to be quite interesting.  the boy can make it from one end of the pool to the other.  how he gets there is the entertaining part.  freestyle, he can handle.  the others ... well, i'll let my text to chris prepare you for the video below.

and here's his first trip down the lane in the mock meet.  when the camera starts going a little crazy, it's me flailing my arms in some semblance of breaststroke, trying to show him what to do.  (i told you, i'm an orange-participant-ribbon-only girl.  probably hurt more than helped him, but he sort of figured it out.)

but the best part?  he jumped back in a few minutes later to do the butterfly for real ... and won.  he stood there, dripping wet, beaming.  "this is so much fun!" he exclaimed.

looks like we'll be spending the majority of our summer at the pool.