Aqua Man, Part Deux...

Mr. Robby had his final swim meet for the current... uh, whatever they break the swim seasons into. 

Seasons? Semesters? Sections?  I dunno...

So anyway, Robby has swim practice on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I (Daddy) took him to practice on Tuesday night and noticed that he would swim, seemingly good, but then some other fella would start to pass him, he would suddenly come to life and race that fella to the end of the pool, swimming notably faster than he was.

I didn't care for that.

I mentioned it to mama and she had noted the same phenomena at practices as well. So we had a talk with the lad.  

The premise of that talk was that he was not to be concerned about what any of the other boys were doing, or how fast they're going or whatever else, he was/is to race his own personal times.  Always push to be his fastest and let the wins come as they might.

He seemed to take that to heart and while Thursday nights swim practice was cancelled due to "the little blizzard that wasn't", he was talking about racing himself this morning before the meet.  So far, so good.

So how did he do?  

He did awesome.  I don't have the specifics of all of his personal best times, and we don't have the official times from today yet, but he seemed to shave off a second or so from his previous best time in the 25 free, shaved off about 6 seconds in the 50 free, and he won two immediate ribbons as "Heat Winner".  He was fired up and it was fun to watch.


That doesn't mean that he was the winner of the race, he wasn't, but of the individual heat.

Don't ask me what that all means...  the only thing I know about swimming is that almost everybody who does it, gets wet.

The pool and the calm waters before the storm.

I'm not sure what's going on in this photo, but it looks like the boy is getting a talking too.  I asked the boy what was happening here, and he claims that the lady was going by giving them hi-fives and he started telling her about his best time, shy boy that he is.

Caleb's good for about 1/2 hour at these swim meets before he's ready to go, hungry, has to go potty and whatever else to start burning up time.  Here, he's playing a Perry the Platypus game on the Kindle to pass some moments.  He was really good today and we were there from 9 until well after noon.

Robby prior to one of his races.  It's hard to tell from a still photo, but he's burning off excess energy by playing air guitar and singing a song.  Probably gets that from his mother...

Doing a little toenail care while he waits for a teammate during one of the relay races.

It's a bad photo because he was all fired up, but this is the first of the two "heat winner" ribbons he got.

Clowning around on the bench again prior to another race.

I like this pic.  Caleb was excited that his brother won the heat and was out to congratulate him.  Robby is coming up the steps with the second of the "Heat Winner" ribbons. Momma and Daddy were very proud of the way the boy performed today!

That's his coach, Jim, in the foreground and Robby in the water just over his right shoulder as he's finishing one of the races.

As I've said, I do not understand swimming, the timing, the strokes or anything else about it, but other than the waiting in between the 2nd and 3rd races, I really enjoy watching these events.  Probably not as much as Robby enjoys swimming in them, but I like them.

I took video of the last race but I'll be cursed if I can figure out how to get it on this post.  Stupid computers (and users!) :-).

Love and pebbles...

What is love?  How does a fella define love? What does it mean to "be in love"?

When I ponder those questions as I have often in the past year or so since we retrieved our boy from Changchun China, I'm not confused by my love for my wife (okay, sometimes maybe WHY she still loves me).  It will be 21 years on May 16th, 2013 when we said our vows to each other and while some things have changed for the worse (see waist lines!), most have changed for the good.  We have gone thru various changes in jobs, health, maturity and so on and so forth. Together, we are aging like a fine wine in our own little bottle.  Upon reflection, I cannot thank my bride enough for sticking by me in those early years!

When I ponder the love of our two boys, that's when things tend to get interesting.

Robby was born to us on March 1st, 2005.  The pregnancy was a wild ride of ups and downs, more downs than up, at the time anyway, but rear view mirrors have a way of putting things into perspective.

He was a great baby and is now a great kid who will turn 8 years old in just a short time. I was so honored to be a Daddy that I barely knew how to contain my excitement.  

I loved changing diapers.  I loved feeding him.  I loved bathing him. Holding him. Having him fall asleep on my chest while we laid on the couch. I loved reading to him. I love running my hand over his head and feeling his hair. I loved taking him places and showing him "stuff" before he could possibly understand any of it.  I loved everything about being a Daddy so much, that he was the only person on Earth who could puke on me, and I wouldn't puke back!

So Robby begins the rigors of growing up.  He gets all the way to 1st grade and we welcome another little duder into our home.  Only this time, it's not a baby. He's a 4.5 year old little Chinese boy who we know powerful little about. The times leading up to our travelling to retrieve him were so wonderfully exciting and scary that I would wish it on everyone!

But how do I love him?

He's not my own flesh and blood...

I didn't get to do the things with him as a baby and a toddler, like I did with Robby...

I didn't get to mold him from day 1...

Will he trust me?

Will HE love ME?

Will he love Robby and Mama as well?

Will he be angry with the world for obvious reasons?


As I now recollect the past 15 months, going back to Got'cha day on December 5th, 2011, I realize that I have many wonderful memories of Caleb and the process of developing the love and trust that comes with being a Daddy.

Dec. 5th, Caleb was being ripped away from everything he had previously known.  He didn't want to be with us and as sure as I'm over-weight with a big honkin' nose, he did NOT want to leave that Changchun court house with us!

Day by day, we as a family worked to gain his trust in an effort to make him as comfortable as possible and, in his mind, assure him that everything was going to be okay.

As those days passed, I wasn't concerned so much with "how do I love him", but more with the fact that the love I felt for him seemed so different than the love I felt for Robby.  Not in a bad way, not at all, but just... different.     

Now we can fast foward to today, February 14th, 2013. I've noted that I love reading to Caleb even though you have to trick him into thinking that it's his idea so that he'll pay attention.

I love running my fingers over his head and thru his black Chinese hair, although most of the time, he'll grab my hand to have me gently rub his cheeks, which is just as good!  :-) 

I love telling him Bible stories and praying with him even though I'm fairly certain that he doesn't "get it" yet.

I love showing him how to do something for the first time (and 2nd, and 3rd...).



If we look at Dictionary.com, we see these definitions:
love  [luhv] noun, verb, loved, lov·ing.
noun
1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
2. a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.
3. sexual passion or desire.
4. a person toward whom love is felt; beloved person; sweetheart.
5. (used in direct address as a term of endearment, affection, or the like): Would you like to see a movie, love?

Those definitions are all well and good, and Caleb could easily fall under number 1 or 2, but it doesn't seem to cover it well enough.

In a popular Bible verse, we see this:
    John 15:13
    Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.


That's often used by folks in, or in reference to, the military who put their lives on the line for the person next to them who does not neccesarrily fall into one of the definitions above, however, I think we tend to narrow the scope of that verse a little too much.

Perhaps just by caring enough for another life and taking time away from our own wants and desires, we are "laying down our life" a little bit for our friends, kiddo's, family, strangers or whoever else?

And the reward for doing so?  Well, there is no definition in the dictionary for that!

Happy Valentines Day!


P.S.  - the pebbles!  Since Caleb has been part of family we have had more pebbles in our house than you can possibly imagine!  It's simply staggering to comprehend how they have gotten to the places in our house where we have found them.  Perhaps we should've seen something while we were in Guangzhou when he was fascinated by the pebbles there, but we had nothing to base any suspicions on at the time! 

Caleb, utterly transfixed by the pebbles at the base of a tree on Shamian Island, Guangzhou, China.

 

Chinese New Year, Iowa Style... year 2!

Year two of the Schmitz family's attendance at the Iowa Chinese New Years celebration.

Prior to going this year, momma and me (dad) talked about how if the seating was more conducive to kids eating, that we would stay for a while and then head to a restaurant to eat lunch, which is what happened on Saturday.

It was roughly the same type of thing as last year, but at a different location.

I took a photo of the signage in a futile attempt to read the Chinese letters under the English. Every time I do that, including this time, it ends in a fail.  I just don't get it...

This photo and the one after it are looking into the room where the food, crafts, fund raisers and whatever else are all set up.

I tried to take a photo of the guy laying on the floor and the little boy doing the crazy acrobatics above him.  A person with really good eyes can spot them in nearly the middle of the photo.

Caleb seemed much more into things this year than last.

Robby seemed way more into as well and was MAD when we were leaving to go get food elsewhere!  Who'da thunk it?

One of the many performers.

Aging rocker Neil Young doing a dual knife dance.  Just kidding, it wasn't a knife dance.  Okay, seriously, it wasn't really Neil Young, but it reminded me of him!

These two cats were also at last years shindig and were 100 times more fascinating to the boys this year.  They do have quite a long choreographed routine that is quite impressive.

Here's some of the kiddos and with the acrobatics group.

More...

Even more...

Ahhhh...  setting up for the "lion dance".  Caleb was captivated by the "lion" headdress and was hilarious standing up to get a better view.  The photo cannot possibly do the situation justice.

The aforementioned lion dance.

This was going on during the ending part of the lion dance (that's the lion on bottom right of the photo), where the adults would do the back-bends and the kiddos would walk across their guts.

And the big finale of the lion dance.

This guy was simply amazing.  Robby just walked up as I scrolled down to put a caption on this photo and said the same thing.   I do not recall what the instrument was called, but he handled it like a champ and played along with recorded music.

This was the stick dancing guy.  He had some pretty good moves, but he has nothing on my Martin Short dance.

These kids, not one of them Chinese, performed common American nursery rhymes/songs in Chinese dialect, presumably Mandarin, but I don't know for sure.

We left there and drove up to the China Dragon in Norwalk for some good kibble.  We weren't the only family to do so as there were four other families, white folks, with Chinese kiddos in there.  

Makes me think that I ought to send an email of recommendation to the organizers about eating arrangements...