Taking The Plunge

Hooray for summer milestones! Natalie, the ever-resistant swimmer, finally put her head under the water! This is the girl who did the Survival Swim class at 2 and a half years old and screamed for weeks and weeks and never did float. The one who boycotted all swim lessons last summer even though she really liked Liam's teacher, Coach Emily. I think she was just proving her point that we couldn't make her do it, plus she was in emotional chaos after Owen's arrival.

This summer she has happily gone with Coach Emily for lessons, but steadfastly refused to put her face anywhere near the water, which has a funny way of interfering with lessons. Finally, last weekend - a breakthrough! I, of course, chalk it up to my brilliant parenting. I bought a disposable underwater camera and played up the idea of getting her picture taken, and letting her take pictures of me, underwater. After all, my kids DO love posing for pictures. This did cause some major fighting, however, because guess who else wanted to take underwater pictures? Owen would grab the camera and fling it into the pool and then jump in after it, to keep it away from Natalie. He's like that. But maybe that was just the incentive she needed... Or perhaps years of taking her to the pool and watching Liam and other kids swim finally flipped the switch. Or, most likely, she just decided in her own sweet time that, sound the trumpets, NOW she was ready to put her head under, and, sound the trumpets again, perhaps NEXT week she will decide to never do it again. She's like that.

In any case, she is smiling in the picture, and I love it. And NO I'm not posting the ones she took of me, because she did a good job of focusing it on me (which, by the way, is nearly impossible when you are underwater and the little teeny hole you look through is way blurry and foggy, and I really didn't think she'd come close to capturing me on film) and I look so very odd underwater with goggles on. She looks so cute underwater, and I look ridiculous. All worth it for the cause, mind you, but I may have to destroy those images...