The first full weekend of summer is in the books. Let’s go back a couple days to our first two days of summer vacation, last Thursday and Friday.

Nothing too exciting on the agenda either day. Some bike rides, softball hitting practice in the street, hanging out with a visiting aunt, a trip to the library. And the girls first two full swim practices of the summer.

Recall that we switched to a different swim team this year. This one is slightly closer to our home, although the one from last summer was less than 10 minutes away. But we heard the new one is a little better organized. They also swim the kids harder than our last pool. L. and C. did fine. L.’s swimming a little longer distances than she did last year, but it’s still well within her capabilities. Same for C.. They’re both tired after practice but are also able to run around and play afterward.

But poor M., with a double-digit age, moved up an age group. And she’s kind of getting her butt kicked. Which amuses us.

Last year she would swim a length of 25 yards, rest, talk, listen to her coaches, and then swim another 25. This year if they swim 25, they turn right around and turn it into 50 yards. Sometimes they have to swim 50 without a break. Or even 100 yards. M. is not the most efficient swimmer in the pool, and since each breath slows her way down, she’s working her ass off to get up-and-down the pool. I give her so much credit, though. She does not quit. She keeps chugging along, finishing each lap no matter how long it takes. And then she goes back for more.

What makes this funny and worth sharing is how she reacts after practice. Thursday night she swam with our neighbors while C. and I were at softball. When we got home, the families filled the fire pit and hung out for a bit. M. was dragging ass the whole time. Finally she sat down in a chair next to the parents and gave us this wiped out, sad kid face. I laughed and said, “M., you can never play poker.”

“What do you mean?” she whined.

“You can’t hide how you feel, babe. I can see you’re totally wiped out right now.”

“I’m not tired!” she whined back.

Moments later we looked over and her head was tipped against the frame of her chair and she appeared to be passed out.

“M., why don’t you go inside and go to bed?” I said.

Her eyes snapped open and she insisted she did not want to go to bed. Only problem was she was slurring her words. I laughed at her again.

“Did you drink some of mom’s wine?”

“Huh?”

Seriously, the girl was acting drunk.

We finally got her inside and in bed and she slept like a rock.

Then we did it all over again the next morning. Mid-day Friday she looked completely spent again. Even with another good night’s sleep, it took her until Sunday before she had all her energy again. And a couple days in the lake had her wiped out by Sunday evening.

This is good for her, though. She’s pushing herself to do things that she’s never done before. I keep telling her it’s going to hurt for awhile, but after a couple weeks she’s going to suddenly feel so much better and be more capable in the water. She seems to buy into that. Although she’s going to let us hear about it after every practice, I think.

Practice yesterday morning was cancelled due to the weather, and then we missed the evening session because of softball. The girls get back in the pool tonight[1] so I’m going to take it easy on them during the day. No 20-mile bike rides or anything like that today. The girls have an intra-squad meet on Thursday and then start swimming against other teams next week.

Our practice options are in the mornings on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays, and evenings of M-Th. They ask that you attend at least four sessions of your choice each week.  ↩