It's a key rite of passage for parents and children, on par with learning to speak, the alphabet, riding a bike or starting kindergarten. It's learning to swim and it's go time for Mary Catherine. Last year she was swimmies only, the frog belt actually. While she wasn't afraid of the water, she wasn't wild about it either.
This year is a different story, she is all over it, spurred on by her friends Cole and Hayden, who both swim pretty well. It's amazing what affect wanting to play with those boys has on her motivation. Heaven please help us when she's a teenager. She finished her first round of summer swimming lessons a couple weeks ago and she is now irrepressible.
Her first nanny, Ms. Anne was a swim instructor and worked with her often when she was 3-4. Last week, Ms. Anne came back to stay with us and get some Mary Catherine time (that warms my heart that all her nanny's do that). She spent and afternoon working with her and Voila, she's swimming. Or kinda drowning but moving through the water. It will scare the heck out of you when you watch it but she's determined like I've never seen her (gets that from her mother). I try to help her and she says "I can do it by myself daddy!"
I was traveling the week that this happens so she swore everyone to secrecy so she could surprise me that she could swim the entire length of the pool. Part of my parent guilt of my heavy travel schedule (88 flights this year so far - thanks American Airlines) is missing moments like this. I try as best I can to make up for this through complete immersion when I'm home.
Either way, find a way to experience these moments. Shannon is great about forwarding videos and pictures captured via her iPhone and we chat on skype, still not the same, but better than nothing. These moments pass like a warm summer breeze. Take a moment to breathe them in.
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