Tom Dolan Invitational

Tom Dolan Invitational, December 8-11, University of Maryland

Steven has been training for the Tom Dolan Invitational ever since he qualified last spring.  He initially qualified in the 50 yard butterfly, then the 100 yd breast.  Over the course of this current swim season, he qualified for more events.  At Tom Dolan, he swam 7 events plus 2 relays, which was the maximum number of events he could have swum.  And really,  I wonder if that was too many events because the meet moved along quickly and he only had around 10 minutes of rest between events on most days!  He was quite exhausted by the end of the each day.

In all, it was a great experience.  Steven's coach likes to call this "The Fastest Kid Meet In America" and after watching some of the kids there, I can sort of believe it...  There are some amazing swimmers out there!  We saw some national age group records being broken, as in the kid swimming in that particular race was THE fastest kid in the age group in the USA.  So that's fun to see.

Steven was a little sick going in to the meet.  He started to get a cold with respiratory issues on Monday.  He had some asthma problems (for the first time in many years) on Wednesday, and we started him on a Z-Pack and some albuterol before at that time.  The meet started on Thursday, and he was still congested, but seemed to be getting better.  It's hard to swim when it's hard to breathe, but this is just one of those things.  I'm sure he wasn't the only kid there battling a cold!  Thankfully, his diabetes was in good control.  Sometimes when he gets sick his diabetes goes completely crazy, with huge spikes in blood sugar.  It was great that his numbers stayed around ideal throughout the entire weekend.  We have learned how to manage his diabetes during meets a little bit better than before as well, giving him extra insulin on meet days (we call it a "meet correction") as he tends to get nervous which inhibits the efficacy of regular doses of insulin.  It's a dynamic correction, based on his sugars each day...  I am finding that diabetes is really difficult to manage!  The main thing is to test often, and make adjustments sooner rather than later...  But I digress...  Back to the meet.

The weekend was long because the meet started on Thursday, but fortunately Steven didn't swim until Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  The meet was held at the University of Maryland, about 45 minutes away from our house (unless you hit traffic, which luckily we did not!).  It was a very nice venue, but a little bit intimidating for parents and kids.  They had a strict policy of keeping parents off of the pool deck.  When Steven walked in to the meet on the first day, he had to follow a path for swimmers and coaches while Josie and I followed a separate path for spectators.  Luckily a teammate of Steven's was there, so the boys were able to walk in to the pool area together.  Josie and I found our way to the stands, and from that vantage, the whole place was very impressive.  Here are some pictures from the first day of the meet:

Waiting for Warm ups

The team is waiting for warm ups to start.  Steven is the boy on the left of the picture- with gray goggles.  He was *very* nervous.

Swimmers in the water...  Steven's team is warming up in the far pool.

More warm ups, practicing starts now...

Can you spot him?  I doubt it!

How about now?  Trademark pre-race position, arms bent, elbows to his side, hands folded under his chin, black cap...  This is before the 50 breast.

There he is...  Almost up and ready to swim.  The 50 breast is one of his best events (the first event he did at the meet), so he was in one of the last heats.  There was barely any time between heats- this meet moved along very fast!

He ended up dropping almost 1 second on the 50 breast, which was really great.  He came in 22nd place.  Then he had a short rest before he went to swim the 50 fly.  He was so nervous!!  I recorded the races on our digital video recorder so that Mac could watch them at home, so I don't have any pictures from the actual races...  The fly went well.  His goal was to make finals...  Except that they didn't have finals for his age division, which we didn't realize until we got there!  Oh well...  He would have made finals, had there been any!!

Placing 15th in this meet is really great.  Just look at how close the times are, too.  They use computerized pads in the water to time the kids; human timers with old-fashioned stopwatches are just there for backups in case all the technological stuff misfires!

The fly was his last event on Friday.  He had more events on Saturday and Sunday.  On Saturday, he swam a relay at the start of the meet (he did the 50 fly in the relay), then he did the 100 Breast, the 50 Back, and the 200 IM (that's a 50 of each stroke- fly, back, breast, then free).  He dropped 0.22 seconds in the 100 breast, and stayed about the same for the other events.  On Sunday he started off the meet with a relay; this time everyone swam a 50 free.  Then he swam the 100 IM (dropped 3.56 seconds which is a pretty big drop), and the 100 fly.  He didn't drop for the fly.  By Sunday he was mostly better from the cold and respiratory issues, but he was pretty exhausted from the meet!  There really wasn't much rest time between events.  He complained that he didn't even get much time to play DoodleJump on the iPod or to finish a level of Plants vs Zombies on the DS...  Priorities...

On Sunday, we all went to the meet to watch the events.  Yes, even Katie!!  After the meet was wrapping up, Mr. Tom Dolan himself was in attendance to sign autographs.  Tom Dolan is an Olympian who won a couple of golds, and is involved in running a swim school out here somewhere and obviously supports this meet.  So, the kids lined up for a bit, and were able to meet Tom Dolan.  Unfortunately he wasn't wearing his medals! 

Here he is trying to get the spelling of "Isabel" correct...  Took a lot of concentration!  Everyone wants to make her a "Belle"!!

He is a very nice guy!  Steven had a special swim cap from the meet autographed "To Steven", and Tom Dolan signed the meet program to all of the kids (Luke, Isabel, and Steven).

After the meet, we went to IKEA for dinner and finally made our way home.  It was a long weekend, we thankfully did not have any traffic issues, and Steven survived his first Big Meet.  Good times.

Gerbils, Thanksgiving, and Swimming

Pancakes and Waffles, Pancakes is the brown gerbil, and Waffles is the black one.

Many things have happened in the last few weeks!!  Here's a quick run down of the Best of November...  And a little bit of December.

First, a few weeks ago, it was FINALLY Luke's turn to bring home the classroom pets, Pancakes and Waffles, for the weekend.  This was a Big Deal.  I'm pretty confidant that this will be The Big Event in Luke's mind for all of 2nd grade!

I picked up Pancakes and Waffles from Luke's teacher (we love her!) on Friday after school.  Luke and I warded of all the elementary kids who wanted to check out the gerbils-- *there's nothing to see here, keep moving*-- and once we made it through the mob to the car, we were able to bring those suckers home for some Good Times. 

First on the agenda:  cover the gerbil ground rules.  No gerbils out of the cage unless an adult is touching them.  No one feeds the gerbils anything except for Luke.  No one touches the gerbils unless an adult is there.  Gerbils can only come out of the cage in the bathroom, since there aren't many hiding spaces for them in there.  OK.  Ground rules covered.  Luke was verrrry serious about all the rules!  Now it was time for some Major Fun... 

What did we do with the gerbils?  We pretty much left them in their cage and looked at them.  Sometimes we gave them a toilet paper roll to chew on, or other various pieces of cardboard.  We did take them out to play every night after dinner- but only in the bathroom.  Good thing too, because Waffles, the black gerbil, is pretty sneaky and he has a way of escaping...

Anyway, here are some pictures from the fun:

Josie meets Pancakes

Izzy is holding Pancakes.  Waffles and Pancakes are chewing on a piece of cardboard in this picture.  They made a decent mess!



Luke can handle Waffles, the little escape artist. 

And for dinner on Saturday night?  Who could resist eating waffles!!  Ha Ha!!!

Anyway, we clearly had a good time with the gerbils.  Everyone in the family enjoyed them, but I think when we finally finish Mac's training, we'll go for a dog instead of gerbils!  Luke is planning to have gerbils as part of his own managerie when he's a grown up though.  Gerbils, cats, dogs, sting rays, sharks, and parrots. 

Anyway, the weekend of the gerbils, we also had a swim meet.  This was Isabel's first official swim meet.  I worked as a timer so that I could be on the deck when she was swimming (parents are usually banished to the stands during these meets-- there are just too many people on the pool deck!).  She came through my lane for two of her three races.  She was very nervous, but she did great!  Steven also swam in the meet, and dropped time in lots of events.  I didn't get any pictures from the meet since I was working as a timer...  Mac was going to take pictures on day 2 of the meet, but unfortunately Isabel got sick and couldn't swim the second day!!!  Steven did take pictures, but Mac just took video, so...  sorry Steven.  No pictures.   

The next weekend was Thanksgiving.  We had a very nice, relaxing day.  We stayed home, and I didn't even cook a proper bird (they didn't have any left when I went shopping!!).  But no problem- we had a turkey breast from Costco that was quite tasty!  Mac really didn't miss carving a Big Bird.  And I didn't miss the extra mess, or the dark meat...  So maybe just a turkey breast is the way to go?  On Thanksgiving Day, we went to the movies.  Since I didn't have a Big Bird to worry about, I went along with the family.  Usually I kick everyone out to go to the movies and I stay home.  It was kind of nice to go along for once!  We say "The Muppets".  It was fun- but smack dab in the middle of Josie's regular naptime.  She was quite tired by the end of the movie.  She held it together until we were all locked inside the car for the drive home.  Then we were able to listen to her mammoth meltdown during the drive home.  Nice.  She had a nap, after which we had the Big Dinner, and that was pretty much it! 

The rest of the weekend Steven and Isabel did a lot of swimming.  There were special swim practices, Christmas Tree decorating at the swim team coach's house, cookies, pizza, etc., etc.  Mac cleaned out the shed outside in preparation for The Big Move, and I cleaned up our front yard.  We also did some more sorting of stuff in the house, donating of stuff we don't need, and just general chores.  Nothing too exciting, but it was nice to have Mac home for the weekend! 

This brings us to this past weekend.  The kids had a swim meet AGAIN!  This is the busy time for the winter swim season.  Pretty soon it will settle down to just a lot of practices, and not many races...  The meet this weekend was the Christmas Championships meet.  Steven only swam in the Saturday session, since he is doing an invitational swim meet this weekend too, and enough is enough!  This was Isabel's second swim meet, and she was very nervous.  And she was sick.  She had a fever, sore throat, stuffy nose... 

Anyway, she really wanted to swim.  So we let her.  What can I say?  Her next meet isn't until mid-January.  She has been practicing hard and looking forward to this meet.  And she's 10, not 3.  She knows how to keep her germs to herself!  Plus The Doctor said it was OK!  

Anyway, after some motrin, her temp was down and she felt good to go...

I was there on the first day of the meet- Mac did the second.  This is a picture of the aquatic center where they swam. 

The girls all swam in the far pool, and the boys swam in this nearer pool.  There were 10 lanes for the girls, 8 for the boys.

Steven swam first in the meet, doing the 200 free.  This isn't his favorite event!  He did fine, but he didn't drop time from previous races.  He didn't make the finals (which I think he was just as happy about, because that meant he didn't need to swim the 200 free again that night!).  Next, Isabel had her first event of the meet:  the 50 yard butterfly.  She really started to catch on with the fly towards the end of the summer swim season, so she was looking forward to this particular event a lot.  She was so nervous though!!

Looking at the pool, waiting for her race to be called.

She's standing right behind the white flag in this picture.  She was so nervous.  First heat of the 50 fly!  She's next up on the starting blocks! 

There she is-- out in front of her heat!

And finishing strong.

She did it!  The meet went on and on...  She was still quite nervous for her next race (the 50 free), but having finished the 50 fly and done well, she was happy.  She was glad she swam.

Steven also swam the 100 back (which he ended up making finals in, and having to return to the pool in the night to swim in the finals.  He ended up in 5th place, and dropped a HUGE 9 seconds from his previous best time before this meet.)  Steven's last event was the last event of the session, the 200 Butterfly.  Why would anyone want to do 3 minutes of butterfly straight?  I don't know.  Ask Steven I guess.  He loves the fly, so that must help!!

Here are some pictures from this event. 

Faithful Isabel- cheering on Steven in the race!

Flying right along...  I think this is coming in at 75 yards of 200...

And finishing the race.  He ended up 5th in the race, which was great considering it was a 12 and Under event...  And only the 2nd time he's ever tried a 200 fly before.

Post race breakdown with the coach...

Who likes to keep a lighthearted attitude at the swim meets!

All in all, it's been a busy few weeks. 

We are now gearing up for Christmas.  We got out our extremely pathetic 4 ft tall Christmas Tree last night (Kate had to leave the room when Mac was "assembling" it.  She said "It's just so sad and pathetic!"  Haha!  It is indeed. It's not making The Cut and will be donated after this Christmas!).  We have some advent calendars out for the kids, and we are trying The Elf on The Shelf this year.  This is a program where a little stuffed elf watches the kids in the house during the day, flies home to Santa at night to report on what he's seen, and then flies back to your house the next day to continue spying.  The fact that the Elf was watching Josie as she threw a magnificent fit last night was probably the ONLY thing that caused her to stop and come to eat dinner...  She knew that the Elf (we named him James Bond which the kids don't understand at all) was watching her and will report back to Santa on her behavior...  She's no fool.

Tomorrow I will drag out the 2 boxes of Christmas decorations and knick knacks, we'll fancy up our living room, and we will decorate our pathetic tree.  Once it's covered with preschool-ish ornaments and other random plastic ornaments it will look so much less pathetic.  Everyone is pretty much just looking forward to the Green Pickle ornament which a teacher gave us a few years ago.  I need to look up the story behind the Green Pickle ornament...  The kids always get excited about it.  It could be that they are just excited about it because it is a Green Pickle ornament.  But I think there is a story that goes along with it... Who knows? 

In the midst of all this, I continue to try to pack up as much as I can for storage and for donating.  I've been sorting through books a lot lately.  It's very hard work, and tedious, and slow moving!  And I haven't even gotten to the kids' toys.  Shudder.