I went to my friend Maddie's swim meet today. She swam amazingly well. I saw her swim last year and it was a start but seeing her today you can really tell how she's understanding the mechanics of swimming. I'm sure she's not really thinking about it but quite sincerely the more you just swim laps back and forth and back and forth the more I think your body instinctively adapts to the correct way of slicing through the water. She qualified with another C time and boy the officials were pretty strict on these little kids and unfortunately Maddie got dq'd on a couple of her other events but took it in stride in typical maddie fashion. Shrugged her shoulders and just swam on to finish with better times as well.

She's one of the kids I amazingly look at and wonder in the back of my head how much more amazing she will be as a teenager. One of the kids that I pray won't change too much but instead expand on the kind of qualities I see wanting in myself. I wonder what kind of person she will be as an adult. Granted, I don't want her to grow up too quickly. She is after all only 11. But boy, I say that, knowing her since birth and look at her and think...wow, she's 11 - how did that happen?

Her brother Carter is amazing too. Clever. That's the word that fits him. And today he was so supportive of his sister even though sitting for hours on cement bleachers could have really done him in...he cheered and hugged and all in all it was a great afternoon.

I've got to learn more about these Nintendo DS gaming systems. They seem to be all the rage with the kiddos and I really don't have a clue how they work. But then again, technology seems to pass me by lately. By the time I figure it out they will probably have moved on to some other thing.