Catching Up: Starting with Boogie!

I realize it's been over a month since I lasted posted! Time has gotten away from me. The end of the Summer has been so busy with the end of Swim Team, Bible Camp, celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary, and our trip to the beach.  I vowed that I would spend every day of our time at the beach blogging and catching up and instead I spent my free time napping, reading, and watching the Olympics and it was glorious!

I don't want to minimize anything so I'll do my best to catch up. Especially since this is my digital scrap book and I want my children to be able to read this some day and read about the memories we made.

It will probably take several posts to catch up, but here it goes:

Lost his 4th Tooth

The day after the the Flipper Mini Meet Boogie lost his 4th tooth. He's now that adorable kid without the two front teeth and I love it. It has taken months for the 3rd tooth to grow in, but it finally is growing in. How did he get to be so big? I can't believe he's starting 1st grade in a little less than 2 weeks. WHA?!?

Just two days after losing his 4th tooth, Boogie swam in another B meet and my parents were able to be there to cheer him on.  This was the first time he swam the entire length of the pool by himself without anyone in the lane with him.  Boogie swam all by himself and was awesome. It was also cool to see all the coaches gathered around his lane cheering him on. He came in last, which was also 4th place and I couldn't be prouder. IT WAS AWESOME!!!!  The Head Flipper Coach's mother has a tradition of giving a dollar to kids when they swim across the pool in their first meet.  She gave Boogie a dollar for the "snack shack" and he was able to get whatever he wanted in addition to whatever I promised him for swimming across by himself. He was one happy kid.

Boogie with his dollar from Mrs. H.

Boogie swam in the last B meet the following week. He was still nervous about swimming by himself and I was worried when I found out that Coach Paul wouldn't be there. There are several assistant Flipper coaches, but Coach Paul has been the one to "rescue" Boogie when he didn't make it across the pool. I didn't think anyone would need to rescue him, but I was relieved when the Big Team Coach, Alex, offered to put on her swimsuit before his race in case he needed her. He didn't, he swam across the pool by himself with all the coaches, Hubby, my parents, his siblings, and I all cheering for him. He once again earned a 4th place ribbon (last place) and the coveted black "personal best" ribbon. He shaved a ton of time of his previous week's race and he was more proud of that than his "finisher ribbon." (He calls the last place ribbon a finisher ribbon and is not impressed, much like McKayla Maroney when she earned her silver medal, instead of gold, in vaulting).

Halfway through the meet, Hubby took the little kids home for baths and bed. I had to stay until the end of the meet as ribbon writer and Boogie stayed with me.  He hung out with me and then we decided to go to McDonald's with the rest of the team to pick up his ribbon. He was totally stoked to find out that he got to eat whatever he wanted (my big guy was craving a cheeseburger) and he received a free mini McFlurry when he presented his ribbon. When his coach called his name for his ribbon, I thought Boogie was going to take off. He was flapping his arms and jumping up and down in all of his excitement. I think it's really cool that our local McDonald's does this for the kids on the swim team.  The best part of the night is that Boogie told me I was the "best mama ever" and "I love you so much, Mama." It was wonderful to share this time with him. We stayed up late, ate ice cream, and spent time together just the two of us and I'm so grateful. He's growing up so fast and I don't want to miss a minute of it.