6.11.2008

The "LONGEST" 15 Minutes Ever!

Riley goes to swim school once a week, for 15 minutes, at this great little place in Seal Beach. Katie had been wanting me to go and watch for awhile now, but I kept making up excuses not to go because I knew Riley cries when she goes and that bothered me! I use to feel sad at different times when my kids cried when they were little, but NOTHING compares to how I feel when Riley cries when she is scared ( I should admit it's more like when she is mad as well). I guess it's been my week. I went to the doctors with Riley on Monday, and I thought I was going to cry when Riley started crying!! It just breaks my heart to see her scared, or hurt, or mad. Okay, back to swim school. Riley needs swimming lessons because I have a pool and we want her to be safe and also everyone wants her to be able to enjoy the water. Katie convinced me to go tonight with them to watch. On the way to the swim lessons, Riley was a bit sleepy in the car and I'm thinking to myself, "this may not be good". Sure enough, once Riley got in the water, I was right! She screamed and cried the WHOLE 15 minutes!! Despite the crying, it's really cool the way they teach the tiny kids to swim. The first thing they learn is when you go under the water, you flip over your back so you can float, thus you keep from drowning. Of course if you were kicking and screaming as loud as Riley was there might be a good chance you would take in some water in the process! All and all, as Riley got to ride on the raft and float back to all of us, and the sun was setting, I was thankful the lesson was over!! But I'm also thankful that I get to be a part of Riley's life in such a big way. I know there are some of you out there that know what I'm talking about, that bond that grasps your heart more than it did with your own kids. And even though the longest 15 minutes ever was tough, I'm grateful that Riley will soon learn to love the water and ocean just as I do!

1 comment:

Diane Mars said...

What a good little swimmer, it is wonderful to know they can survive if they fell in the water. I bet it was hard to watch
Hugs, Diane