Swimmer #2

As you know, Claire has been part of the best (not just my opinion, they really are the best) swim team around for the past 2 years.

I've gone on before about how great it has been, and what a positive impact it has had on Claire.

Well, I've never mentioned what it does for the rest of us:

Long, hot, humid practices

Little sisters being dragged here, there and everywhere to watch

Evening upon evening in the pool or in the car driving to a pool

etc, etc, etc.

Well, there is one more thing it has done for us. It's made us a swim family!

That's right! After several invitations from Coach Kim, Ella finally decided to give the team a try this summer, and she's loving it! (After all, it beats sitting on the bleachers watching practice!)

I think she's a natural swimmer. She has taken right to the water, and the hour long practices twice a week. She even likes wearing the swim cap and goggles!

Finally, this week, she had a chance to show us what she's got. Ella participated in her first meet last night. What a show!! She was a little nervous when we first got there, but 10 minutes in the water to warm up and she was ready to go.

She swam in 3 events: 25 Free, 25 Back and the 100 Medley Relay.

She did great! (By that I mean she dive-jumped off the starting block and swam all the way to the end without being DQ'd.) I could not have been happier! It brought tears to my eyes watching my baby swim like that. Watching her swallow her nerves and stand strong and brave on that block. Watching her fight to keep going, straight and narrow, all the way down the lane.

I had to stand back and thank God for the gift of Ella. From the moment she was born, she has blessed me and scared me and loved me and inspired me and reminded me of God's love. She is so caring and loving and selfless and now, a member of the best swim team around!

Thanks to my friend MaryAnn for taking some great pictures!

Enjoy~

Ella getting ready for her first event

Coach Kim offering some last minute advice

Taking her "roll-over breath", we're working on that!

Made it!

Back stroke ready! Looks like a pro already!

Swim baby swim!


Almost there.....

Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Johnson, Boppa, Daddy and Avery for coming to watch our Ella compete for the first time!

Thanks to big sister Claire for being such a great example, for taking Ella under your wing. You are not only a great swimmer and great team member, you're the best sister!

And congrats to Claire on a couple of first place finishes and some great swims against 9 and 10 year olds last night!

Ode to Father's

While I may have forgotten to blog,

I don't want to be a hog.

But, I have the best dads of the lot,

and a husband who's totally hot!

Here are some belated pics of my fantastic Father's Day.

I had the great honor of having breakfast with my wonderful dad,

then I spent a fantastic day with the best husband and father around,

then a delicious dinner with my other great dad.

Thank you to all the wonderful men in my life that love me, and my children, so much!

Summer Time Fun

Here's to good friends and good times!

Our (5 hour) trip to Living History Farms with our neighborhood friends ~

The crew ready to "live" history

A little "press" lesson

Ella hard at work

Claire and Ellen made a beautiful bonnet

School time-are they already in trouble?

Spelling bee!

Ready for a ride back after a long day!

The monitor is off

We shut off the baby monitor.

I don't mean, "oh the baby is crying, but she just needs to cry herself to sleep, so I'm shutting off the monitor". No, I mean, we shut off the monitor.

Finished. Done. Game over. Race is won. Bell has sounded. Lights out. Adios. Cow's done gone home. Cookie jar is empty. Over. Finished. Put a fork in it. The baby monitor is off.

We've taken down the crib. We've put away the bibs. We packed away the baby toys. We've taken down the baby gates. But, the monitor? That was the last thing. The last thing that reminded me I had a baby in the house. I had someone that might need me, at any minute, to help them. Someone that might all of the sudden realize she needed her mommy and I, her mommy, would hear that sudden thought and come running.

It's gone. Gone with it is the heavy breathing that would lull me to sleep. Gone with it is the panic in the middle of the night when that cry would jerk me out of sleep. Gone with it is the pain in my heart when I would turn down the volume and watch the lights race to the top as my baby wailed away, trying to learn to "put herself to sleep". Gone with it is the security that not one moment of my baby's life is outside of my reach.

Here now, is the reality. The reality that my baby is growing. That my baby is, at times, outside of my reach. The reality that my baby doesn't need me to come running when she coughs, or sneezes, or even cries.

Here now is the reality that my baby gets up, throws open her door, stomps out into the hallway, and yells at the top of her lungs, "Mom!" at 4:00 in the morning...... how do I turn that down!!