Well, now that it's summer, the season has begun for shriveled up fingers and toes, sunburns, and bleached blonde hair in my family! My boys are all water babies, and love to swim tremendously. I was a little fish as a young girl, and they have all inherited my love of the water. Tuesday, we went to Zuma beach, and they enjoyed swimming and boogie boarding for several hours. Nevermind lunch, just "can I go in the water now??" Gosh, just give me a minute to get the sunscreen on!
Yesterday, we visited the Santa Clarita Aquatics Center, which we visit several times each summer. It is a great place. They have a large waterslide, large shallow beach entry swim area with water guns and waterfalls, and then an Olympic sized pool with two regular diving boards and a high dive.
Last summer, Vance was the last of the boys to learn to swim. Phew! Now that they are all water safe, the pool is a lot less stressful for me. At the Aquatic Center, if you are under 13, you have to take a "swim test" (swim one entire length of the pool without stopping-25 yards) if you want to use the diving boards. This year, Vance was given the first opportunity to do this. So the story goes like this....
I walked with Vance over to the swim test area, where he waited in line for about 15 minutes. While he was waiting, I told him he could use the lane closest to the wall, because I had seen the previous lifeguard allow the kids to use this one. Well, Vance started swimming, and the life guard told him he needed to use the next lane over (I am assuming so they will not be given the opportunity to grab the wall). Well, Vance was very upset over this, crying and going on how he could not get under the rope to go into the other lane. I explained to him that all he had to do was lift it up and go under it. But, nope, he was convinced he COULD NOT do it. And so he walked away disappointed, crying, and utterly hopeless. I could not convince him to try again. After all, it was just too hard. End of story. He is funny that way.
About an hour later, it was time to check up on how the boys were doing, so I walked around and spotted, Austin, then spotted Luke, but no Vance. I could not find him anywhere. Karen and I were looking around together, and she looked over to where the kids were in line for the swim test, and she said to me "Is that Vance in line for the swim test?" Lo and behold, it was him. He was going to try again, without even telling me. So I pretended to not see him, watched him swim underneath the rope and across the entire length of the pool without a problem. He came running up to me, proudly displaying his green wristband (the symbol of his huge accomplishment). Is that not the funniest thing? It had to be on his own time, with his own personal motivation, and without the pressure of me watching him. The kid cracks me up. So Vance spent the remainder of his afternoon jumping off both the low and high dives, over, and over, and over again, until there was just no more jump in his step. I was so proud of my little fuzzy. Ah, the simple pleasures in life. It is my joy to watch them grow and learn something new each day.
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