Swimmers

This summer, everyone in our family learned new things. I learned that jury duty is not all bad. (I had somehow made it to this point in my life without ever being summoned.) Jewel learned that it is okay to sometimes each sandwiches. She went to camp and they (gasp!) served Chick-Fil-A sandwiches one day. And she bravely tried eating it, bun and all. And discovered that this bread stuff is pretty tasty.  Only one more child to convince that it is okay to eat bread...

But, far more importantly, this summer the three stooges finally learned how to swim. This is something that has always been important to me. My mom took me to swimming lessons from the time I was itty-bitty, and I can't remember ever not being able to swim. I love to swim, and I wanted them to share that love they way they share my love of books. (Even Natalia is starting to like books, but that is a story for another day.) And living on a peninsula between the ocean and a river, water is a way of life in Wilmington. There are beach trips and pool parties and boat rides. Even if my kids didn't end up sharing my love for swimming, I wanted to at least feel comfortable that if they ever fell into water, they could get themselves to the surface and to safety.

Starting the day of his third birthday, there have been three separate incidents where Mike walked into water over his head and just stood there. Frozen. He never flailed or visibly panicked. He just shut down. Underwater. So there has been a lot of work to do to ensure he can survive in the water. Leon and Natalia, thankfully, have a little more sense than their brother, but they still aren't natural swimmers. (Jewel turned into quite the swimmer a couple of years ago, so thankfully, she is no longer a concern in the water.)

I've dutifully taken the kids to swimming lessons every summer, and by last summer, all three stooges could swim IF they were in a pool and IF someone reminded them what to do. It was a start. Unfortunately, life happened and by the time I got around to signing them up for swimming lessons this year, the first session we could get them into was in August. So that meant swimming all summer without lessons. Thankfully, we do most of our swimming at my parents' neighborhood pool that has plenty of shallow areas and a lifeguard on duty.

However, back in July, Leon and Mike were invited to a swim party. They started out swimming in the shallow end, but soon wanted to join all the other kids jumping off the diving board. Of course I said they could go, but that doesn't mean I wasn't dangerously close to having a heart attack while I watched them.

I think they know their limitations, because they started off jumping directly toward the ladder. The first time he hit the water, Mike got himself to the surface, he started moving his arms and legs, and he didn't actually go anywhere. His "freestyle" seemed to turn out an awful lot like treading water. Thankfully, he managed to eventually put it in gear and get himself to the side. (The whole time this was happened, I was dutifully biting my tongue to avoid yelling out encouragement and embarrassing him in front of his friends.) Leon, thankfully, jumped right in and had no issues.

The most amazing thing for me to see, though, was how much their confidence grew that afternoon. And how much better they got at swimming. Since that afternoon where I let them just be kids and figure it out, they've been swimming a ton. And when swimming lessons rolled around this year, they did great. Natalia is always competitive with her siblings, so she tried hard in swimming lessons too, and before I knew it, she was flying in to the 8-foot water right along with her brothers.

So now, of course, the trick is to continue to give them the freedom to (safely) grow their confidence as they try other new things that I might find a wee bit scary. As their mother, I reserve the right to continue to quietly have a heart attack on the side. But maybe even I will learn that they are usually just fine.