A Little Fish in a Big Pond

Our sweet little girl is growing up way too fast.

Mallory has always loved swim class – I think she mostly liked the 30 minutes of one-on-one play time with Rick (and sometimes me) during our parent-tot class. But at the end of the last session, the teacher said Mallory should move up to the preschool class. “But she’s just barely THREE!” I told the teacher. She assured me she’d do fine.

Tonight was the first night of Mallory being in the pool without us. I was pretty sure it wouldn’t go so well and we’d end up with both of the kids in the parent-tot class together. I talked it up after school, letting her know that she was going to be all by herself in the pool and that mommy & daddy & Carson would be watching.

She was excited about it when we arrived at the pool – she was the first one out on the deck for class. And she (not very) patiently waited until the teacher said they could get in the pool. She started towards the water – I totally felt like a mama duck encouraging her duckling to just hop in and see what happens – and I told her to be a good listener.

My sweet girl turned around and started back towards me. I thought for sure it meant that she was going to say “OH HEY-YELL NOOOO! I’m not going in there without you!”

But instead she said “Just one more hug & a kiss!” and after giving me a quick hug & kiss, she walked right into the water.

She did so great – she tried things she’d NEVER have done if Rick or I were asking her to do them (stick her chin in the water, bounce in the deep end). I was tickled at what a good student she was and how well she listened to the teacher.

Our girl was sooo excited to use a pink ring floatie thing (she yelled to us across the pool: “I HAVE A PINK ONE!” with a HUGE smile on her face) when they had some free time at the end of class to just kick around. At the end of class, the teacher called them to turn in their rings, Mallory tried as hard as she could to kick her way to the teacher, but she kept going backwards. That was pretty funny.

Here’s to hoping this is the beginning of her really starting to swim. As much as she likes the water, she doesn’t like getting her ears wet and going all the way under. It might have to do with the tube she still has in her one ear – it could be causing some pain – so we’ll see how it goes.