Ben's first meet

All summer Ben has been making great progress with his swimming, but when it came to a meet, he would get so nervous. He would talk a big game saying he would swim in the meet, they'd enter him, and then he'd get nervous at clerk of course and back out. One time he even stood at the blocks until they blew the starting whistle before backing out. Then on ribbon day he would always be sad. The last meet of the season though he decided to swim! It was so exciting - the entire pool cheered for him the entire way across and he got high fives all the way through relays. Everyone was so excited! Especially us! He was so happy and proud of himself and so were we! He had a huge grin on his face the entire way across the pool. A friend took these pictures of him for us.

Here is a video of his race (and one my friend took from her perspective).

Also, here is Ben going off the diving board the morning before (for the first time!)...

And Ben, so so proud of his first ever ribbon!