Maybe I'm Amazed

Thanks to the H1N1 virus closing Clare's school district this week, I got a bonus day with the girls yesterday. Addie, Clare and I spent the day all over town hitting the library, park, Walgreen's, playing at home and even swim lessons for both girls at the Y.
The last time I was off during one of the swim lessons was over a month ago, and because it also happened to fall at the exact hour that U2 tickets went on sale, I missed watching Clare's class because I was up in Ann's office duking it out with ticketmaster.
So I wasn't going to miss this chance to see Clare in action, and she didn't disappoint.
While Addie was doing her thing in her class, Clare asked if she could just "do some laps" before her class started a half-hour later. With a shrug the lifeguard said she could as long as she made way for any adult swimmers if they came in to use the lap lanes. Sure thing..
I figured it would be sort of a futile effort - I knew she had become a much better swimmer this year but I was seriously doubting that any real "laps" were going to happen. Before I could really think much more about it, Clare adjusted her goggles, jumped into the deep end and took off.
I mean, TOOK OFF.
Head down, arms striking the water like a pro, she was doing the crawl stroke at damn-near my own speed going down the lane. Holy crap- she's amazing! As I watched her hit the wall and start to come back I figured she would slow down any time. To my amazement she didn't really look tired or out of form until she got more than halfway back to the wall where I was standing.
I crouched down and the end of the lane and waited for her to surface. Her smiling face came up out of the water and I reached out a high-five. I was blown away. Seriously. At age 6?
There are no words to describe what that does to a parent. She was so upset with me last time for missing out on her class, and now I know why. She had something she really wanted to show her dad. I looked up and saw Ann walking along the walkway upstairs and mouthed the words "did you see that?" I motioned towards Clare as if to ask if she was aware that she had become so good in the water. Of course, she was well aware since she sees her every week. But for some reason I just wasn't clued in until yesterday.
She continued to do more laps, asking me which stroke she should use. And for every one I asked, she was down and back in a flash. Backstroke, breaststroke, with no problem.
Unbelievable.
I told her to save her energy for class, since Ann had mentioned that's what they spend most of their time doing during the 45-minute session.
Of course she didn't really want to rest, but a bathroom break and a few minutes farting around with a pool float kept her from expending all of her energy.
And once class started, i was even more impressed. Her teacher seemed to be all about business, and has the kids do the laps in a "chain", and they start in the order that keeps most of them from passing each other. If a kid catches and passes the kid in front of them, then they rearrange the order for the next lap. It's kinda like challenging somebody for their chair in band. (not that I had much experience with that, but it was always an option)
So out of roughly 8-9 kids in the class, Clare was in the #2 spot. And stayed there the whole class. To boot, some of the boys swimming behind her looked to be at least a few years older if not more. One kid had to be at least 9 or 10 years old. And there was Clare, smoking him up and down the lanes. Makes a dad proud... ;-)
She's something else, that Clare bear. While she's not quite the cuddly Bear of 2, 3 and 4 years she's a talented and fairly confident little girl. Each time she asks if somebody will be upstairs while she goes to sleep, or follows Ann or I around the house so she's not separated from us by too much distance I'm reminded that she's still just a little kid. But on days like yesterday at the pool, it's hard to think of her that way.
Now, if I can just get her into mountain biking...