A couple of times during swim practice in May Christian would get out of the pool complaining about a pain in his chest and difficulty breathing. At the time we were busy, long days and I just figured he was getting tired. In June we moved to daytime practice, no school... Almost wake up and go, no way was he tired yet onhe first day he came out of the pool complaining about the same pain and breathing problems... That made me think he had sports related asthma or a mild cse asthma or something like that... Off to the doctor we go...
After evaluating him and getting his history (no problems like this in the past 3 years of swimming) she felt it was most likely allergies that has caused an inflammation in his bronchioles. He as put on a steroid inhaler twice a day to relieve the inflammation, a bronchiole dilator inhaler for just before practice to open his air way up and a nightly dose of Zyrtec... Working great so far! He'll be on this for about 2 weeks.
After talking with fellow parents of Christians friends many have started to give their kids an allowance. After thinking about it a bit I decided to give him $2 per week to spend/save as he desires. We'll see what he decides to spend things on... Of course I'll guide him, but the end choice will be his.
As school comes to close I have one sad puppy on my hands. Hi teacher, Ms. Gateley, is one of those live-changing teachers that you remember through the years and Christian was sad school was ending as she would no longer be his teacher. Her efforts can be seen in his work as he has had an amazing year in school this year. Coming in he was a typical active boy who does well in math and science and did okay with reading/writing and he was squirmy and everything an active boy is in school. Coming out he sat in his desk, arms crossed, smiling doing his work and (mostly) focused on the tasks he was supposed to do.
At the beginning of the year his writing changed for the better. Ms. Gateley took some time to focus on neatness and proper writing and also explained there is are times you can write can quickly and not as neat and other times when you need to take your time and do your best writing. This resonated with him and he does so well.
Then halfway through the school year they really started to focus on reading and she created a little challenge for them and that got Christian into reading, BIG! He started reading at grade-level but within a month he was reading grade 4 level books and at the end of the year he finished off a 6th grade book!! We have been visiting the library to support his reading habit and he's finding books he loves. All around a great effort and a huge change!
Time Trials is now over and it's great to see how much Christian has improved since last year! Improvements in every stroke puts him in the top 4 for short and long free, top 3 for butterfly, top 2 for backstroke and breast stroke... Well, it's not quite our best stroke but he still does well. Our buddy RJ swims for another team now, but he's always been a lot faster than Christian --- until this year. This year Christian beat RJ at time trials by .01 seconds – when we first started swimming RJ was a lot faster than Christian! His times land him in good position to be part of the 'A' relay teams this year and we're approaching the times that would qualify him for "Meet of Champs" --- an all-star swim meet --- that would be awesome!
It's that time of year again, the start of a new swim season... Top of the age group (7-8) this year, should be exciting! I think Christian got burnt out on swimming last year after he did the Marlins fall clinic, took 6 weeks off and joined the marlins swim school, then switched to the marlins spring clinic, followed by sea otters over summer, then the Marlins fall clinic and waterpolo... He ended up in November waterlogged and wanting a break so when it came to preparing for this summers swim season he did nothing. I am worried it'll affect his performance, we'll see...
The Sea Otters this year are offering the boys of the choice between two suits, in the past they’ve only offered the Jammer as a team suit, this year, they added the brief. The Jammer is a longer suit, more like shorts and the brief is the more traditional “speedo” suit. When I asked Christian he said no way to the brief, he just wants to wear the Jammer.
