I goofed.....again!

There are times when you just know you made a mistake. I have made many. Mother of the Year Award....not planning on getting it this year...again!

Chase has been swimming since fall for Blue Devil Aquatics. Every meet he as competed in, he has made improvements, cutting his times. We have been so proud of him, and so thankful for coaching he has received. Chase enjoys swimming and he is good at it. He has worked real hard all year long.

He competed in a final meet this past weekend. It was sort of a championship meet, but for children that did not qualify to go to State Champs. As good as he is, there are some amazing kids that swim incredibly well. We have no doubt that if Chase continues to put as much effort in his training he will too be at State Champs one day.

Anyway....here we are, the eve before his "champs." Chase has this nice cough that sounds horrifying. It is allergy season, which he has a tough time with, and there are about 100 bugs in the air at school. We come home from practice and start to get ready for bed. Cough....cough.....cough....cough. How pitiful. I think to myself, he needs sleep, this meet is important tomorrow. Knowing him like the back of my hand, if I don't do something, he will not sleep at all.

You see, his nerves always get him. He starts to worry and then he gets so worked up he cannot sleep. Normally, (without a horrible cough) after some coaching, he will finally slip off to sleep. Add that cough in the mix, sleep seems to be not in the plans...unless....I just give him a little night time cold medicine. Seems like a good idea, right? WRONG.

We wake early on Saturday morning, since we are expected to be at the pool at 7:45, and the pool is almost one hour away from our house. Everything seems to be okay. Until........

It is time for Chase's first race. He dives off the block, in slooooooooow motion. He swims in slooooooow motion. It was almost as if he were on tv and they had singled him out to show how exactly to do the stroke or something. His freestyle looked really nice. Nice and slow. Sheldon and I just looked at each other. We immediately started repeating back and forth to each other, "He does not feel well." Followed by more Mommy and Daddy excuses for our perfect child.

I go down to the deck after his race and check on him, he feels warm to me. He insist he feels fine and does not want to leave. Sheldon justifies that there is so much chlorine there is no way he could share his germs with other swimmers.

Two more swims to go. Freestyle done, backstroke and breast stroke to go. 50 Back, and 100 Breast, that is four lengths of the pool. Oh my. Not good.

He started each race out pretty good, but got slower and slower and slower. I felt about one inch tall. I know that combined with the sinus/cough issue, night time cold meds the night before the big race....just not a good idea.

If there was one good thing about this meet it was that Chase felt so crappy he did not care. Normally he is so hard on himself and so nervous before every race. Not so much this time. He hated that he did not cut time off his races, but it was a passing thought.

In case you don't see what is going on here....I am trying to make myself feel better here. If I convince myself that Chase was not upset about his bad performance, then I won't feel like the worse Mommy in the world. I don't want to have to put another thing on the list of why I will not get Mother of the Year Award. My list is long enough. One day, maybe, I will get to walk down the Mother of the Year Red Carpet. At best, I can just hope that my kids will forgive me for my mistakes, Lord knows they are the ones that will be picking out my nursing home.