Pools and Pianos

Friday was a day of firsts.  Xanthe had her first piano master class and Ari and Freestone had their first swim meet.  Xanthe's piano video is pretty boring unless you're interested in the fine details of Twinkle Variation A.  I learned quite a bit!   Xanthe was cute in her little dress, especially when she bowed to the teacher and said, "Thank you for teaching me."  Her own piano teacher, not the master class teacher, gave her a little panda for playing.  Xanthe loved having an audience, which consisted of a bunch of piano teachers, Ruby and Uncle Trajan, who brought Ruby from her guitar lesson.  (Thanks!)

After the piano class, We drove to the swim meet, hoping we weren't too late to see the kids' races.  By the time we got there, Xanthe was sound asleep, and Scott had been hanging out in the humid pool area for a couple hours.  Freestone raced the 10 and under 50 meter backstroke.  I didn't realize at the time that he came in dead last, by about 30 seconds, and that the whole crowd was cheering for him at the end.  I was just excited and impressed to see him swim in a straight line!  The little guy was probably the tiniest swimmer at the meet in his micro-speedo, and the most determined.  They award ribbons for the first six places.  Freestone, not understanding that his race had three heats, thinks that he for sure got a ribbon, since there were fewer than six in his heat.  I thought about buying him a ribbon, just because I was so proud of him for racing.  Then I gave myself a mental slap and said, "Hello!  Buy your kid a ribbon for coming in last?  Isn't competing and reaching the finish line reward enough?"  Not to mention the ice cream after!

Araceli's race was the 50 meter freestyle.  Being a complete novice, she had actually never dived off a starting block before, and she did a belly flop, which I didn't get on camera.  She steadfastly refuses to turn her head to the side to breathe, and was a little panicky by the end that she couldn't catch her breath.  (She has asthma.)  Possibly, swimming isn't her sport.  (Neither is anything with a ball.  She told me how embarrassing it is when the ball is coming toward you, you flinch big time, and it doesn't hit you.  I get that!)  Nevertheless, I was ridiculously proud.  I was on a swim team in ninth grade and came in last every time.  Pa-thetic.  These kids have already surpassed any ability I might have inadvertently developed on my swim team.  And they didn't get any swimming ability from Scott.  When he was Freestone's age, he was crying and screaming with fear at swimming lessons.  The teacher threw him in the deep end to demonstrate that he could do it, and he freaked out.  His sister Michelle had to jump in and save him.  So seeing our kids able to get out there and swim is a little bit like a turtle discovering that its offspring can fly.  It's kinda cool.

I have vowed unsuccessfully many times to stay away from kid-centric activities where you feel obligated to shout, "Way to go!"  But...way to go, swimmers!  And, "Way to Twinkle, Xanthe!"