Ribbons!

Friday was Fun Friday/Ribbon Day at swim practice.

I prepped Simon for potentially not getting any because I was pretty sure he disqualified every race he swam. He was okay with that because some of the older girl swimmers had walked around and passed out bright yellow participation ribbons to the youngest swimmers at the meet on Wednesday night. (thank goodness.... I had been under the impression the little ones got ribbons just for swimming in the meets, but as it turns out, it's inconsistent and based on how much time the director's mom has to write them all up... )

At any rate, he got an 8th place and a 9th place ribbon (both dead last place, but he didn't care because... ribbons!) and one for swimming but DQ'ing. He was thrilled. WHEW.

Interestingly, getting the ribbons seems to have lit a fire under him because now he's practicing a little here and there in his free pool time like Ben does. He even has started trying to do a rudimentary butterfly stroke, which is pretty amazing considering he struggles with coordinating the arms and legs for regular old freestyle. LOL.  I shouldn't write him off as not being a swimmer just yet, it seems.  I mean, Ben couldn't even swim at ALL when he was 7!

Ben came away with a couples thirds and fourths. All were last place in his heat except one of the thirds for butterfly. He says he was really nervous.... but now with two meets under his belt, his confidence is back and he has now made it his mission to be the "butterfly master".

He is shooting for at least second in the next meet.... we'll see. The other pools put up some pretty tough competition. In the last meet, the first place 9/10 boy in butterfly went about five feet with every swing of his arms. The other three swimmers, Ben included, were pretty much in a dead heat, but this one kid was ridiculous. Ben doesn't have size on his side, but he is naturally pretty fast and lots of practice will build up his upper body strength and endurance so he can probably contend. We'll see... there are six more meets left to try!

Exciting stuff! ;)  Love watching them get excited about every new achievement!