I've been doing Mommy & Me swimming lessons with GIRL on Saturday mornings. Today was a banner day! She made great leaps. I lightly held her and she floated on her back, her hair fanning out around her, a huge smile on her face...Then she popped up and said, "floating is so quiet" and lay back down again to take her quiet space in the water. She connected with that ... that weightlessness, that quiet. That soft hum of sounds you hear underwater, perhaps not unlike the womb.
GIRL practiced kicking, blowing bubbles and arm strokes. She dunked her head up to her hairline reaching for dropped toys on the shallow bottom. All with a smile the size of TRIUMPH plastered across her face. Her elation in her own doing was contagious.
When I was pregnant with GIRL I went to this same YMCA in my last trimester, going 3 times a week. It was a prenatal water aerobics class and it was heavenly. The beauty of the water is its ability to make you feel incredibly light in weight and in mood. I had an easy pregnancy, in spite of or because of being 42, but like anyone else by the 8th month was feeling heavy and cumbersome. So, the prenatal aerobics class was a lifesaver. Getting out of the water was always a trip. Walking up steps, ever so slowly, yet feeling as if ...suddenly someone threw a bowling ball at you and you caught it. Permanently. Oh...the heaviness.
I'm not sure what it was today, but as the minutes flew by one tumbling after the other, I felt a vibrant, ecstatic connection with my beautiful daughter and the water. Maybe it was a body memory of when we once floated and moved as one. Or maybe it was just a little note from GOD letting me know that these small moments, these stepping stones, are something you never want to miss. Whatever it was...I heard the message.
****************
ME: Let me look at these tiny little freckles on your nose.
GIRL: I like them! They're pretty.
ME: Yes, they are. They're beautiful. You have them like your Daddy.
GIRL: They're from the sun. We should thank the sun. Thank you, Sun, for my beautiful freckles!
| Tweet |
|
|||
Out of the mouths of babes . . . she captured it perfectly.
ReplyDeleteTeaching all my kids to swim in the pool and the in the ocean has been one of my greatest satisfactions. Aren't we lucky to live in California?!
Sounds wonderful. I am not a water baby myself but all my children swim like fish. Not sure where they get it from. But I do like floating in one of those inflatable chairs in the sunshine with a nice glass of champagne in my hand. Well, until my sons take it upon themselves to overturn the inflatable chair - they think that is very funny, but I do not - such a terrible waste of champagne.
ReplyDeleteIt's really good that you have something you can both enjoy together like that. With me and mine it is skiing - it's great as they get older as they tell you all sorts without realising they are talking if they feel comfortable doing something physical with you.
This is beautifully written, and I can really relate to it. I took water aerobics for a while, and I loved the peacefulness that came over me in the water. I think it is amazing how GIRL connected with that quiet feeling. I love the freckles comment, too!
ReplyDeleteI was never a swimmer but I took to the pool when I was pregnant with Zack. Best thing ever.
ReplyDeleteMy kids are part dolphin - it's Greg's side of the family - and I do all I can to get them in the water.
So glad you are doing the same. You are building sweet sweet memories.
swimming with your kis, does it get any better?
ReplyDeleteThere's something about water.
I love water. I have always loved water. I would pay extra for apartments if they had a pool.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful time with Girl. We are enrolling the Queen in swimming lessons next month, but I'm pretty sure there's no Mommy about it. We'll see how it works out. We asked her and she is excited to try it.
Beautiful freckles, miraculous life! Sounds like the day we had here.
ReplyDeletealthough I heard alot about the benefits of going into the pool during pregnancy, but I dare not...coward me.
ReplyDeleteNow THAT actually sounds like a lovely, memorable day. That GIRL is oh so wise, oh so young. What IS IT about water anyway?
ReplyDeleteIt's so nice that you are in tune with these small yet highly significant parts of life. It is so easy to lose touch of them.
ReplyDelete"Bowling ball" is a perfect analogy!
ReplyDeleteI tagged you with a meme. Don't smack me.
I need to float more often.
ReplyDeleteLove swimming with kids--sounds like you and GIRL had a blast!
ReplyDeleteI love that wonderful feeling of floating and the quietness of it, too. How wonderful that she reveled in it.
ReplyDeleteKEEP BELIEVING
Well, you know I'm a big fan of floating. :-)
ReplyDeleteI wish I would have embraced your girl's appreciation of her freckles when I was that young. I didn't learn to love mine until I was an adult.
You wrote this beautifully. Seeing what's beautiful in a moment, as it is happening, is wonderful.
oh, my girl and i are both such water creatures
ReplyDeleteI certainly remember floating as relief from the heaviness of pregnancy! Ahh, did that feel wonderful! Truly, it was the only way to escape from the constant pull.
ReplyDeleteLove reading about your "glorious moments."