It was Fathers Day this past Sunday, so the kids and I went out to watch Jordan play softball in Chatsworth. In watch, I mean Cali play on the swings and Noah throw rocks. The real reason they went over was to go swimming at CAPS. For those of you that don't know what CAPS is, it is the worlds largest all concrete swimming pool (or else, that is what I have always heard. I'm going to choose to believe it for the integrity of this blog post :)
Let me give you a brief background on my kids and swimming pools.
Cali: Loves the water. Could have possibly been a fish in another life. Fearless. Daring. Have I mentioned she loves the water?
Noah: Scared. Chicken. A baby when it comes to the water. Won't touch Richard and Shelly's pool for all the money or ice cream in the world.
So, I take them to CAPS expecting Cali to do a forward 3 1/2 somersault with the hand clap from the “Friends” theme song in a pike position off the high dive and Noah to stand there and throw rocks in the water.
To my surprise, Noah LOVED the water. I think it was because there is a HUGE shallow end (with a frog slide to boot). He can walk around, throw diving rings, and best of all, touch the whole way!! He was such a brave boy. Have I mentioned he's scared of the water?
And Cali. Of course she wanted to go right to the deep end and go off the diving board. All the years that I used to swim at CAPS, I forgot that you have to pass your "test" to go off the diving board by yourself (I'll get to the "test" in a bit). So, the lifeguards made me get in the water with Cali while she jumped off. I was evidently suppose to catch her?? The water was 75 degrees and there was NO WAY I was going to go all the way in. The high school lifeguards didn't like that.
Now for the test....
The deep end is 80 feet long. You have to swim 80 feet to the rope and 80 feet back. This may not seem like a far ways, but when you're looking at it (especially through the eyes of a five year old) it seems 100000 miles away.
Cali was insistent on taking her test.
"Mom, I can do this. I'm five years old", she kept saying. I'll be honest, I thought there was NO WAY she would be able to make it. I finally gave in and told her that if she got tired to swim on her back or the lifeguard (who swam with her) would bring her back if she couldn't do it.
Oh wait. The lifeguard informed me that you cannot swim on your back OR doggie paddle. Wait. My kid is five freaking years old. She isn't Michael Phelps. She doesn't know any swimming stokes! So there goes that idea.
Until....
Cali jumped off the diving board, yet again, and showed me that she knows how to do the breast stroke. Where does she learn this?? So I reluctantly gave in, again.
Sure enough, that little stinker did the breast stroke all the way down and all the way back. People were on the sides cheering for her. I was so proud of her. I was sick I didn't have my camera.
As she got back to the shallow end, finally able to touch, I picked her up and gave her the worlds biggest hug while spinning her around. Her response....
"In YO face mom"......
I love her. I do.
Noah's favorite spot in the pool- the frog slide
The deep end. Did I mention it's like 2000 yards from beginning to end?
Another view. It's far. I promise.
That's right folks...she did it. She starts training for the 2025 games next summer :)
No comments:
Post a Comment