Bathing beauty

 

Something I didn't mention in my last post about our trip to Atlanta was another of Addie's little adventures. During our little poolside celebration of Destiny's birthday Addie decided to take a dip in the pool...on her own. Thanks to Destiny's six year old sister, Danielle, who said "Addie's in the pool," we were able to quickly retrieve her, but not before my heart skipped a beat - or two or three or four or just stopped altogether.

When I heard Danielle's little voice say, "Addie's in the pool," I whipped around and quickly began scanning the bottom of the pool for her mop of blonde curls. Sabian had done the same. Imagine my surprise when instead, after looking out and not seeing her, looking directly below me and finding her clinging to the side of the pool. I plucked her out of the water, explained as calmly as possible that she couldn't do what she did, and then checked her over. Again, to my surprise, the top of her head was dry. The only thing I could figure was that she entered the pool by the steps, and being as tall as she is, was still able to touch at at least the third step down, and then inched her way over to the side of the pool and then hung on as she moved on down the pool. 

One of our kids thought maybe she had, in fact, gone in over the side of the pool but flipped herself around to hang on.

Either way, I was both so relieved and a little proud of my girl that she thought to hang on like she did. I would never want her to enter a pool on her own, especially not being able to swim, but was glad she reacted like she did and I am SO thankful for little Danielle.

So, we're taking swimming lessons. In an earlier post I wrote about deciding against them. At the time I really did think she wasn't ready and along with the hour commute (each way) to the lessons every day for two weeks, I settled on getting her into the water as much as possible this summer.

But, when my friend Lee Ann pinpointed a teacher in Wewa and we discovered others who were interested in lessons, it worked out for us to schedule a group. Tack on Addie's little escapade and I was sold on taking Addie. 

So far we've only had one lesson due to thunderstorms the rest of this week. I would say it was mildly successful. Addie wasn't crazy about having water poured over her head (over and over) and she was freezing most of the hour we were in the pool. She would float and kick when the teacher wasn't looking, but as soon as she was asked, she just stared at her. I guess my little talk before class about listening to the teacher didn't sink in. We'll try that again.

Overall I am glad to be taking the lessons and praying and thinking that she'll get used to them more as we move through them. I'm not looking for her to be the next Michael Phelps after this - I realize subsequent lessons will be needed - but I am hoping she'll take away a skill or two that we can build on by working with her. I still want to have her in the water a lot this summer and hopefully we can just have some fun. It helps that the other kids in the class are all Addie's friends - we'll just have to bundle her up in a wetsuit :)

So, that's our adventure this week. That, and we're currently waiting on the in laws to arrive. Sabian's family should be entering the panhandle any time now and we'll be spending the weekend with them.

Thank you to all currently serving in our military, as well as our veterans. Thankful for our freedom this weekend! Have a great 4th!