So, Sam knows how to swim.
It happened this week. And although I’d like to say that it happened instantly, it could also be that when the kids’ summer break started on MAY 19 (thanks a lot, private school), we’ve spent so much time in the pool, the kids may have also grown gills.
But it is true that Sam went from a kid with floaties, to a kid with an Aerial inner tube, to a kid with neither–and who was gliding along the pool.
Never had one lesson. (Name the movie.)
Sam has a long and complicated relationship with swimming. He’s loved the water since birth and has shown that by submerging his face and trying to stay underwater as long as possible. Which never worked out well since it took him a while to understand he did not, in fact, have gills. Add to the equation that he’s one of three children, and I spent most of last summer pulling Sam up from the bottom of the pool. Ellie, infinitely more cautious, spent last summer, screaming “Sam!” from the pool’s steps and pointing at her struggling brother. Catie was usually doing cannonballs millimeters from our heads.
Apparently all of his time like the Nirvana baby floating at the bottom of the pool (eyes open, no dollar bill on a fishing pole), did a lot of good. Sam suddenly peeled off his floaties, and instead of trying to sit on the bottom of the pool, he swam about ten feet, took a breath, and swam to the side, where he pulled himself onto the brick.
I was flabbergasted. Like an epiphany, I saw the future of my summer. Ellie, content to float around the pool in the Aerial inner tube, Cate still doing cannonballs of the side, and Sam a competent swimmer. Plug in the Margar-ator! (assuming I wasn’t pregnant and nauseous by the smell of alcohol), hand me a poolside book! No more lifeguarding!
And then Sam ran to the edge and tried to do a backwards summersault into the deep end. He miscalculated (shocking, I know), and scratched his face. And, in my second epiphany of the day, I saw that my lifeguarding to just moved to the Advanced Lifeguarding stage.
