Swim Team!

This past Thursday marked the first official swim meet of the season. Swim meets are crazy chaotic events, organized chaos at its best. (And I use the word organized in its loosest interpretation.) The boys were excited for the chance to compete, but Griffin was just excited to finally, finally (!) be an official member of the team. He was almost gleeful when he showed every one his event information written on his hand in permanent marker just like all the big kids.

The boys did really well at each event. Aidan swam so fast I told him I saw smoke coming up from his hands. He won both his heats and gave his relay team a nice lead during his stroke. Brennan swam four events and loved each and every one. Griffin rocked his first meet, doing admirably well as the newest and youngest member of the "controlled drowning" heat. I went from cheering Griffin on when he jumped into the pool without a second thought to swim a 25 yard backstroke to praying wildly that he would not drown about halfway down the pool. He didn't drown! And he finished his 25 yards backstroking his little arms as half the pool yelled and encouraged him to keep going even though every other child had finished their length about five minutes ago. My four year old! A backstroker!

But my favorite moment of the meet had to be watching my boys encourage each other other, root for each other and help each other. Each one of them was just as excited to swim as they were to watch their brothers swim. I saw Aidan walk over to Brennan before his first event, the backstroke, and explain to him how he had to get in the water and wait for the start. I watched Griffin yelling for each of his brothers. And I loved seeing Brennan walk up to Aidan, clap him on the back and tell him "good job." Their pride in each other fills me with absolute joy.