Mama's Little Fish

Yesterday was the last day of Brynn's American Red Cross Level 3 swim lessons. He has had the same wonderful teacher all year long, and she and I have worked up quite a rapport.

Before Level 3 started, 4 weeks ago, I told Brynn that he could start Karate lessons after he passes Level 3, because I want him to be completely safe in the pool this summer. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure that Brynn would pass last night, and so was looking at another month of sitting at the pool, two nights a week.

On Tuesday night the kids did most of the test - they floated, they glided, they jumped into the deep end and swam a little. It looked to me like Brynn did pretty well, but I knew that last night was the biggie: the distance swim. About a week ago his teacher told me that he has all the necessary elements together to pass, but she wasn't sure that he had the stamina for the distance swim. She pointed out that he was the littlest one in the class, at least a year younger than all the other kiddos, many of whom also couldn't do the distance swim.

When we arrived at the pool last night, his teacher again reminded me that he needed to do that swim to pass. I told her about the karate deal, and we decided to tell him that he was too young to pass Level 3 this time around, and so to start karate now, coming back to Level 3 when he was older.

Before he got into the pool, I took him aside and said, "Sweetie, your teacher thinks you might be too young to do this distance swim today, and that's ok. But I want you to do your best. Daddy and I will be super proud of you whatever happens, if we know you did your best."

"Ok, mummy. I'll do my best," he replied, running off to join his class.

I settled into a fun game of Sequences for Kids with a friend and her young ones while the big kids swam. It was very engrossing; I was keeping an eye on the swimmers, but somehow missed seeing Brynn swim.

While the teacher was writing their pass/fail cards, she let them have 2 turns each on the big, purple slide. So far this year, Brynn had refused to go on it, saying he was a little scared. Not yesterday.

I watched as he slowly climbed to the top and sat down in the mouth of the enclosed smile. I held my breath to see if he would push off.

Ten seconds later he was climbing out of the pool yelling, "Mum, did you see me???" Standing in front of the slide, dripping wet with blue goggles on he continued yelling, "Mum, that slide is totally awesome." My friend and I started laughing, it was the cutest thing.

Then the teacher came over, "Did you see him swim?" she asked. Um, no. "He did it!! I have to pass him."

What? My little just-turned six year old just swam half the length of the pool doing elementary front crawl, floated on his back for 60 seconds, then swam back doing elementary back stroke??? Well, mostly. His teacher did spot him once or twice during the back float because he is so stinking little, and doesn't have an ounce of fat on his body to add buoyancy, but she overlooked that!

You should have heard his whoops when we told him!! "Mama," he said, "I tried my best and it worked!"

Can you tell how proud I am of him?

It is so rewarding to see your kids work hard at something, and for them to see the benefits of their work.

So for now, we are taking a few weeks off to relax: swimming and ski school are both over for the year. However, the craziness will start again in April , when he begins taking karate, twice a week.

I think it's dad's turn to take him to this one ...