Becoming a waterbaby (maybe)
Juju, as you may have realized, is somewhat of a daredevil. She loves to slide down banisters, jump speed bumps on her scooter and is trying her best to climb trees. It won't be long before she's tall enough to reach those lower branches herself, in the meantime she's trying to convince all of us to lift her up on our backs. Ow.
Her Kryptonite is water. When she was three or four years old, she was actively ignoring my demand for her to wear her floaty and to stop jumping on the pool steps. She was so stubborn, she refused to believe anything bad could happen. Sooner or later our pool experience was bound to end badly. In fact the odds of it ending badly were so high no bookie on earth would have taken them. Toddler + pool + can't swim x no sense of fear = disaster. Always.
I decided to let it end badly in a way I could control. I stood next to her and watch her jump on the stairs in water she knew was over her head. She didn't mean to go under water of course, she had simply misjudged her ability, and she slipped and ended up on the lowest step. I grabbed her up instantly and she spent less than a second actually under water. I hoped this would give her some common sense but no, to this day she refers to the event as "The Day Mama Let Me Drown."
Since then she's been very reluctant to go in the water with anyone other than me and she still hates her floaty. So we stopped going to the pool. The fight over the floaty and learning how to swim had simply became more trouble than it's worth. But she's six now. It's well past time for her to know how to save her own life, and it's officially time for some summer water fun.
I signed her up for weekly swimming lessons at my gym. When I first called about lessons I didn't know if she should be in level one or level two. The woman on the phone said helpfully, "Well, in level one the kids spend most of their time crying..."
Sold. Level Two.
Juju thought about crying in the car on the way over to the first lesson and she held my hand tightly as we walked to the pool. Right away I could tell that she liked her instructor, Katie, who is blond, cute and a very friendly teenager. A Big Girl. A Very Pretty Big Girl. A Very Pretty Very Big Girl Who is Being Paid to Pay Attention to Juju. Win!
Except for the actually going into the water part.
Me: "Juju, you have to take your shoes off. No really, honey. You can't go in the pool with your shoes on. Even though they're waterproof. Come on baby, let's take them off now."
Juju: silence.
Very slowly she takes off her shoes, but she does not let go of her towel, which she is wearing as a cape.
Me: "Now let go of the towel, baby. You can't go swimming with a towel, right? You can leave that with me, I'll keep it for you." Pause. "Come on Juju, let go. Give me the towel baby, it's time to get in the water. You'll see, it will be warmer in the water than it is on the side of the pool." Longer, more pointed pause. "Okay Juju, really. Katie is waiting for you. Do you want a time out? Juju? We're here for a swimming lesson. Katie wants to play with you and teach you how to swim, this is going to be fun! Okay ONE. Now TWO..." We almost never get to "three" in the timeout countdown these days, but we always get to "two." Testing.
She drops the towel, looks at me and takes Katie's hand. They step into the water together and I sit quietly on the sidelines. I try to make myself invisible without actually being gone. I want to watch, but I don't want to distract her.
It took Cassandre several weeks to put her face in the water when she was starting out (she had a rough time learning to swim too), so I didn't hold much hope that Juju would do it any faster.
Wrong. Juju the Daredevil did it within 10 minutes of entering the pool.
Comments
lol. That's awesome.