Caelan and the Pool

If you knew me as a child, than you know Caelan. We are so similar in many ways. As a little girl, I had some fear of water. I liked to swim, but hated to be splashed, cold, dunked, go under... Caelan has been a bit like me, but she spends more time at the water because of our little cottage. A month or so ago, I enrolled both of the kids in swimming lessons. It was Caelan I was most worried about. Garrett has no fear and loves swimming.

Well, we get to the pool, the two of them with towels in hand, me with my running shoes, ready for my 30 minutes of exercise. Garrett had a meltdown. He is "scared" to go in the water without me. Caelan hops right in. Insanity kicks in and I decide that despite the fact it is winter in Michigan, maybe a little "mom and me swimming" wont kill me, so we enroll Garrett in the "Waterbabies" class. Yuck. While, I am excited to do this type of thing with Lia, Garrett is a little old for "the wheels on the bus." And I am a little cold.

Back to Caelan. Yesterday was her 4th or 5th lesson, and now she is going under, jumping in the deep water, swimming the width of the pool in the deep water. The list goes on and on. She is doing so well. I am almost shocked. This past weekend she went to a birthday party. A little peer pressure never killed anybody, right? There is a very tall water slide, which many of her friends were not even tall enough to go down. But Caelan must have been convinced to try it by her friends. I watched as she stood at the top. One friend after the other came down nice and slowly, plopping into the deep end. Caelan was peering over the edge, peeking into the slide, but finally- laying on her back with her legs and arms pulled in, Caelan came shooting out of the slide like a cannon. I couldn't believe it.