He is Three!

Even though JM is getting to be a big boy, he comforts me when he says:

"I'm your baby boy, Mommy."

"Yes, you are," I reply.

"Yes, I am."

Happy birthday, Baby Boy.

Worn Slap Out!

After spending the weekend at their MawMaw and PawPaw's house in Richton, Caroline and John Michael gave into their exhaustion on the ride back home.

Sunkist vs. Makos

Caroline swam in her second meet a few weeks ago. This meet was much bigger than the first, and she did great! She'd improved so much since the first meet...her times in backstroke and freestyle improved, and she started diving off the block. There were some very fast swimmers competing against her this time around, and she held her own, bringing home six ribbons!

We're taking it on the road for our next swim meet. We'll head to Birmingham and stay in a "holetel," as Caroline calls it. :-) She is very excited, and this will be her first time to compete in the 8 and under age division, seeing as she's turning seven years old in a couple of weeks! (This means that we'll be focusing a lot more on swimming faster than her previous times than on swimming faster than the person in the next lane!)

Need More Cowbell!

MSU vs. Alcorn State

Our Superhero

This day, he was Spiderman. He's also chosen an Ironman and a Superman costume, so we think he's having a superhero identity crisis. We really don't care who he chooses dress up like, or that he wears a costume to a public place on occasion. We are just relieved he's not choosing to wear his sister's dresses and cheerleading outfits. It's taken us way too long to give him some boy dress-up options!

First Swim Meet

Caroline has proven herself to be quite the swimmer! She competed in her first swim meet a couple of weeks ago, and ended up capturing the title of Top Swimmer (High Score) in her age division.

Waiting for her first race

We had no idea what to expect going into the first meet. Caroline had been practicing with Sunkist since June, and we knew she could swim, but did she know how to handle herself during an actual race? Shawn and I read everything we could on the Sunkist website, and we tried to prepare her...

"Be sure to swim your hardest all the way to the wall - don't slack up before you get to the end - hit the wall with BOTH hands!"

"Put your toes all the way to the end of the block, and don't jump in until you hear the horn blow! When you hear the horn blow, GO!!"

"This isn't practice. You actually want to beat the person in the lane next to you. Move your arms fast! Kick your legs fast!"

We tried to explain to her what a "DQ" (disqualification) was, even though we weren't entirely sure of what all constituted a DQ, ourselves. (And yes, she did get "DQ-ed" in the breaststroke due to improper kicking. The other swimmers were disqualified as well.)

All of this being said, when it came down to it, Caroline swam her heart out and performed beyond our expectations! She won two of her heats - the 50 yard freestyle and 100 yard freestyle relay. She had awesome times in all of her strokes, i.e. swimming the 25 yard backstroke in 29.52 seconds, and the 25 yard freestyle in 25.63 seconds! (25 yard = one lap; 50 yard = two laps)

When she swam in the 100 yard medley relay, they put all of the age groups in the pool at one time. Caroline swam the first leg, which was backstroke. Shawn and I were amazed when we saw her swimming as fast as the 10-11 year old girls and boys!

We had so much fun watching our baby girl! While it sure was fun playing sports when we were kids, it's a totally different feeling to see our child practice something, enjoy it, and succeed at it. We are so proud of her! The next meet is in a couple of weeks...

Tired, after winning first place in the 50 yard freestyle

SHARK!!

I'm sure my son will kill me one day for sharing this story, but I can't resist, especially after the long months it has taken him to do #2 in the potty. As he did "his business" today, he described his excrement with enthusiasm as it exited his body: "Mommy, it's a snake! It's a snake!"

He dethroned and surveyed his work. I must say, it was very impressive - sorry for the graphic description, but it even came out of the water just a bit.

"Mommy! It's not a snake! It's a SHARK! It's a SHARK!"

I have no idea what goes through that boy's mind sometimes, or how he comes up with the things he does, but that was my entertainment for the day.