Swim lessons began at the Hill house today. Sarah, a Pure Sound kid from St. Luke's came over to give Cavett swim lessons. The goal this week--safety and form.
Today they practiced floating on your back. She had him imagine that he had a cupcake on his belly button and he had to use his stomach muscles to keep the cupcake out of the water and from getting soggy. Later, he informed me it was a dark blue cupcake.
They also worked on keeping his legs straight while kicking. This was a bit tougher and will take most of the week to master. However, he showed her how to "swim like a squid"--to Cavett this is the butterfly kick. He has definitely mastered that one.
He was a bit shy to warm up and wasn't even sure about getting in the pool at first. But, after 5 minutes, he was in his element and he wanted to play with her, but not necessarily do what she wanted. Unfortunately, I was put in my place. I am so used to being the teacher. I wanted to be there and watch him and correct him when he wasn't listening. But, I decided that he would do much better if I were to go inside and let her deal with him. She was much more successful after that. He was very into diving for things on the bottom of the pool, so that was his reward when he did what she asked.
I guess this lesson was as much for me as it was for him. He's growing up and I can't be there (and I shouldn't be there) all of the time. I am reminded of one of my favorite musicals, Children of Eden, when Noah sings...
And it's only in Eden grows a rose without a thorn
And your children start to leave you
On the day that they were born
They will leave you there to cheer for them
They will leave you there to mourn ever so
Like an ark on uncharted seas their lives will be tossed
And the deeper is your love for them
The crueler is the cost
And just when they start to find themselves
Is when you fear they're lost
But you cannot close the acorn
Once the oak begins to grow
And you cannot close your heart
To what it fears and needs to know
That the hardest part of love
Is the letting go
Obviously, how God must feel about us is the same. I really don't think you can truly understand God's love for us until you have children of your own. It's an amazing and wonderful parallel that He has given us.
3 comments:
Walking away for those lessons was hard, but like you said, it was necessary and it worked. Isn't that just the hardest thing to do...nicely stated Jennifer!
Great post. It is so tough to step out of the mommy/teacher shoes at times and let them learn things from others, but important in their development. That doesn't make it any easier. It makes sense to me now when I hear the stories of women crying as their "babies" go off to school for the first time. Before my kids I really didn't understand.
Love it. I can't wait for the next chapter of my life, because I think that husbands, kids, families, etc. are just one big trick God plays on us to get us to depend on him. Much like everything else we ever do.
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