Proud Mama

This afternoon was one of those days.  I was in awe of each of my kids.  It's not as though any of them mastered anything new, but they each simply impressed me.  I know I'm not supposed to boast, but this is a blog for our family's benefit, so I think it's okay to brag on my kids a bit...

Ace, our kindergartner bookworm, managed to read a Magic Tree house chapter book, cover to cover, during his brother's hour-long swim team practice!  Whoa!  I am continuously blown away by him!

This next one won't sound nearly as exciting, but trust me, it is.  Elyse wanted to go sit in a sort of special place at the pool during Isaac's swim practice.  I told her she could, but she needed to come back to me in five minutes and check in.  Sure enough, in 4 minutes, she was back and quickly asked if she could do it again.  I was pleased she obeyed so of course wanted to positively reward her.  So, she was told to come back in 10 minutes.  9 minutes later, she was huffing and puffing with excitement letting me know she was checking in and ready for "more privileges and responsibilities."  This went on and on throughout the entire practice and she thought it was fabulous!  (Truth be told, so did I!  She was finally recognizing the connection between listening/obeying and additional privileges, opportunities, and responsibilities.)

Finally, our little fish!  Isaac is knocking the socks off his new coach!  She pulled me aside to say with a huge smirk on her face, "I just have to tell you...your son is fabulous.  Fabulous!"  She went on and on and it was so obvious that she is excited about Isaac's love of the sport, ability, potential, and enthusiasm to learn.  She asked me if he had told me about his goals for swimming.  She was clearly so impressed, she didn't really give me a chance to respond.  Pulling out her notebook, where she recorded each swimmers goals for the rest of the season, she smiled and said, "He said his first goal is he wants to understand everything I'm talking about."  At first, it sounded a bit silly to me, but oh my goodness, this coach was seriously in disbelief of Isaac's earnest desire to just LEARN.  Her face said it all.  When he gets excited about something, he is without a doubt a favorite of any teacher/coach because his eyes burn with his dreaming.  I've had people pull me aside many times to say how they can see the lights turn on and the passion light up in his eyes.  Clearly, Coach Jen has seen it and is so excited!  She also was thrilled that his second goal was to learn how to use the time clock.  She just loved his understanding and desire to understand the whole sport!  I laughed and said something about how he loves it and would love to be the "next Michael Phelps."  With big eyes, she said, "He may be!"

It sure is fun to see other people dream with and for my kids!  It's fun for us to dream with them!

Then, we came home to read and go to bed and well...what can I say, I'm proud of the two little "Captain Underwears!"   There's real potential there!