Chlorine for Claireen

Swimming is a large part of our life.

The morning of our wedding day...swim practice at 8am.

The morning Claire was born...swim practice at 6:45am (after Rachel's water broke).

Claire's first swim meet...4 days old.

It's a lifestyle, and she's living it.

Summer Swim Team - June 1st - July 16th

Just under 100 kids swim in the summer and they were all very eager to meet Claire. We took her to her first swim meet at only 4 days old, and all of the kids adored getting to meet her for the first time. With Mom being home from work for the duration of the season, it made it easier to leave home in the mornings to go to practice. Practice runs from 6:45-9:30am and so I could easily make it home by 10am to give Mom a quick reprieve.

The hardest part for me was that some of the summer meets are away, and we don't get back until late. It would make for a long time without seeing my newborn from the early afternoon until the next morning (or 2am if I was really lucky!)

Claire grew like crazy those first two months and spent a good amount of time "soaking up the sun" at the Boone Pool. Sometimes at swimming events, and other times while I was working.

Girls Swim Season - August 1st - November 4th

With the beginning of high school season, my time at the pool increases drastically. With two practices each day, evening meets on the road, and Saturday meets/practices my time with Claire began to become very limited. There were several occasions in which I went over 24 hours without seeing her, and that was really tough (doesn't seem like that long now...but it felt like forever).

About two weeks into the girls season, school started back up. This meant back to work for both Mom and myself. Claire's daycare is close to the middle school, so I often thought about going and seeing her during the day, but refrained.

Claire got her first glimpse of high school swimming excitement at our first home meet. It was a lot of fun to have her there (she wasn't quite too sure about it) and to show her off to my coaching colleagues.

Unfortunately/fortunately our team did not qualify for the state meet, so this gave me an extra week "off" between the girls and boys high school seasons. I got to spend a little more time with Claire before it was back to work starting all over again with the boys.

Boys Swim Season - November 6th - February 10th

Towards the conclusion of the girls season, I usually start to hit a bit of a lull. Back-to-back seasons can get a little lengthy at times, but it is something I love doing. This year, the gap that I most enjoyed was the break in morning practices. For a couple of weeks between seasons, we do not have any 6am practices. The last two weeks of the girls season and the first week of the boys season is afternoon practice only, so I got to be at home a couple of weeks to hang out with Claire in the mornings.

Boys season runs right through Christmas break. In the past, visiting Muscatine for a short while hasn't been too big of a deal, but this year with Claire we wanted to spend a little more time with Grandparents, Aunts, and Uncles. We spent an extra day in Muscatine and the boys got a deserved day off after Christmas.

The older Claire gets, the more she enjoys swim meets. She can now be seen sitting and cheering on the Toreadors (sometimes when they aren't even swimming - just excited to be at the pool). I hope she always stays excited about swimming. Raising a kid around a sport for such a large portion of their life may be challenging and it may be awesome. Claire is going to be spending a lot of time around the pool her entire life, and I hope she grows to respect and admire the sport the way that I do.

Side note...Camden Lochte (son of Ryan Lochte) and Claire are birthday buddies, so no pressure but she needs to be faster than him! :)