Big Boy...

We spend a lot of afternoons during the summer at our friends' house swimming in their pool. Most of the kids spend the afternoon floating around in some kind of floating device, but my friend's older daughter, five years old, has started swimming. The three year olds, my son and her middle daughter, have come a long way and this year have started floating around in floating devices on their own. On Monday I was in the deep in with the five year old working on her swimming and treading water. She'd jump in and I was right there to assist as she tried to tread water. My son came over with his floating device and wanted to jump in. My rule is no jumping in with a floating device. If he wanted to jump in without it I was there to catch him. He didn't like my rule and jumped in anyway, so he was banned from the pool for the rest of the day, unless he wanted to give it a try without the floating device. He wanted back in the pool, so he gave up the floating device and jumped in. He grabbed me around my neck, very tightly, so I knew he wasn't comfortable. We moved into the shallow end, which he could stand in, but hadn't realized it yet. It doesn't matter what mommy says, she doesn't know what she is talking about. He continued to hold on tight as I pryed his arms away from my neck. I tried to explain that when he does that I have a hard time holding him up and staying above the water. He wined a little and wanted to go to the side, but I patiently explained to him if he would just stretch his legs he would be able to touch the bottom. He thought I had no idea what I was talking about. I eventually got him to touch his foot to mine and slowly moved mine to the bottom of the pool and then out from under his so he could feel the bottom. After doing this a couple times he was so proud he could touch the bottom. From that moment until swimming was done with for the day he walked around the shallow end, close the the edge, on his own. He seemed to really have a great time and I'm so proud of him. When we got home he called both sets of grandparents to tell him about his adventures for the day.