Monday Map

I don't know if I mentioned it, but J learned to float in swim class last week. I use the term "learned" loosely, of course, as it's hit or miss on whether or not he actually will float. But he did it once. And we made a huge deal out of it, so I'm hoping that gives him the confidence to keep on trying!

He's fearless, as I've been told countless times by the owner of the place. Given that we know someone who almost drowned, at a similar age to J's 3.5, fearless has me worried. Fearless is just one tiny step away from falling in the pool, or perhaps even jumping in, when someone has their back turned for one split second. So every Thursday we have swimming, and he definitely looks forward to it. He's in the class with 3 of our playgroup friends who he has known since they were all infants. They get along well and it really helps to keep them interested.

So....I got sidetracked. Back to that floating day. Swimming is 45 minutes long and O had fallen asleep. I moved closer to the small pool that J was in, in order to get a seat with a back (as opposed to the bleachers, which are the antithesis of comfortable anyway, but especially when holding a child). I settled in with O draped against my chest, snoozing. I can hear most of the conversation going on in the pool.

The instructor, Miss Kristen, had to repeatedly tell J to keep his hand on the wall. Paying attention to safety isn't exactly his strong suit. Then came his turn to practice floating. Up until that particular day, floating was the one thing that made him nervous. He'd scrunch up his legs instead of stretching them out, squeeze his eyes tightly shut, and try to grab onto Miss Kristen. The owner happened to walk by and said "make sure he opens his eyes and relaxes!" J was instructed to do so. I'm assuming it worked (forgot to mention the lattice blocking my view!). Then the owner instructed Miss Kristen to make sure J's ears were under the water. I could hear him yelling "but I can't HEAR!" He was instructed to relax, yet again.

They sang the ABCs to keep them calm. And that's when Miss Kristen let go. And J floated.

Proud does not begin to describe his face when he first walked out to tell me. That shy little smile curving up as he said "I floated by myself." High fives and clapping abound, with the owner lavishing on the praise. A lollipop rounded out the lessons, making the whole day just amazing for him.

Ok, the whole thing may not have been quite that dramatic. But it certainly felt monumental to me. And probably to him too. The thing is, everything he learns still feels monumental to me. It's so amazing to watch him soak up new knowledge. Their brains are like sponges, paying attention to every tiny detail, sometimes even the details you don't want them to notice. So I shouldn't be surprised about what happened at bedtime last night, but I still was.

I mentioned above how he didn't like his ears under water since he couldn't hear. I figured he didn't much pay attention to the ABC song. I didn't pay attention either because I had no idea Miss Kristen sang it differently.

Last night we were reading his Curious George book. It has an ABC section in it. He touched every letter as he sang the song. He gets to the end and says: Now James knows his ABCs, next time won't you float for me?

He smiled up at me at the end, looking for approval. And it took me a minute to figure out where he had heard that. So he can hear under water! I smiled and told him his song was perfect. Next week it's back to floating!