To days ago I took my children to the pool. We had a good time splashing around. They used their inner tubes that give them mobility across the pool. My son wanted me to throw him around and go under water with him. My daughter played at the edge of the pool a lot. It was a fairly normal day at the pool.
Yesterday, we went to visit my in-laws out of town. My mother-in-law and I went out on their pontoon boat on the lake at Pinehurst while my husband and father-in-law went to watch the women's US Open. My children wore life vests and their inner tubes and they swam all around the boat in the middle of the lake. They even swam under the boat, which you can easily do on a pontoon boat. It's a little tunnel in the middle of the lake and my kids thought it was loads of fun.
Today we're back at home and after lunch I go to the pool with the children. I'm getting things unpacked and I look over to see my daughter on the third step down, head completely under water looking like she's looking for something. She has never done this before. So I watched and tried to control my urge to dash across the pool to save her.
She pops her head up, looks around and then goes back to the same thing again. So new trick, new fun and she's learned something more about being in the water.
I get into the pool and wade away from the steps. My son launches himself towards me, puts his head underwater and furiously kicks to get to me, reaching his hands out as he gets close. He has never done anything like this before. Not even remotely close to swimming on his own into the middle of the pool where he can't touch. Oh, and I'm about seven feet away when he does this.
He makes it to me smiling. He stands on my leg and then launches back towards the steps. He makes it without a problem. He hasn't been swimming without an inner tube and I swear, last week he didn't have a full grasp on the kicking to forward motion relationship. But now he's got his head under water and he's heading right for me again.
Then, his sister wanted to swim to me. He didn't want to stop swimming back and forth long enough to give her a chance, so we had to work something out. She wanted me to get closer so she could swim to me from the steps, so at about two feet she launched into the water, put her head down and did the same kicking thing right into my hands and then again back to the steps.
About five minutes later she was swimming more than five feet to me just like her brother was. They were completely happy and very confident in their ability to hold their breath long enough to get to their destination. They were kicking well and weren't struggling in the least.
Someone had to be blamed for this. And then I remembered, one of our favorite sitters had taken them to the pool for a few hours that afternoon before we went out of town two days ago. She is magical in that my children love her so much I think they'd prefer her over my husband or me most days. Did she teach them to swim?
She was sitting for us again tonight and I asked her. She said, "no, they were doing that when I took them the other day". So no definitive answer, but I am guessing she encouraged the confidence she saw in them and they became better swimmers as a result.
I saw another mother at the pool today and she asked me about our sitter. She said she spoke with her and was so impressed because she was so attentive to them and really seemed to enjoy being with them and was it okay if she asked for her number. So I gave her the number and told her I knew her son would have a great time with her too.
When they're older I'll try to remember to tell them they learned to swim on Summer Solstice, one of my favorite days of the year.
The Big Boy Update: As we were leaving to come home the other day, my mother was helping strap my son into his car seat. He asked Mimi, "do you want to come to my house, Mimi?" There's nothing more that says I love you from a small child than them wanting you to be with them. I know my mom knows how much he loves her.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: At our end of year conferences, my daughter's teacher was talking about her relationship with the other children in the classroom. She was the youngest child to ever start at the school, her first day being two days prior to her first birthday. She didn't speak then and barely walked. Today, she is one of the leaders in her class, with many of the younger students looking to her as ab older role model. Her teacher told us there is something about her that intrigues the other children. She said, "she's an enigma, a beacon...and a flexible little girl" (referring to how my daughter lies on the floor and folds in half, putting her face on her feet, when she's having a hard time or is too tired to go on.
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