The summer Katie was 3, I knew she was going to start swimming on her own. She had a 4-part floatie on her back at the beginning of the summer, and didn’t have a problem when I took one off. She hesitated for a minute when I took off the second, but then got used to working a little harder and she was off.
But then we hit a wall. I tried to get the third floatie off, taking her down to one thin floatie, but she wouldn’t give it up. I tried to take it off when she wasn’t looking and she’d figure it out and thrash about like she was drowning. Then, she sat on the side of the pool and refused to go back in until I put the second float back on. And MAN, that girl is stubborn. She sat on the side of the pool for an afternoon and watched the kids. In July. In Atlanta. When she wanted to swim. Just to prove to me that she was NOT going to go along with my plan just no matter what.
I gave in. Of course I did. She was 3, and if she wanted her floats that badly, she could have them. She won. I lost. And I dropped the subject. Next summer, I thought. No problem.
A couple weeks later, we were swimming with friends, and she looked at me, took her floatie off and said, “Mommy, I can swim now.” And she jumped in the pool and swam away before I could pick my jaw up out of my lap and say something. I stood at the edge of the pool and watched her do it. She was so proud of herself. So happy to be swimming. And there was no doubt in her mind that that day was her day.
Last Friday night, when Katie was getting ready for bed, I reminded her to put on a pull up. She looked at me and told me that she was going to sleep in underwear that night. Although Stagg and I have talked about when we might be able to stop buying pull ups many times, we have not talked to her about it at all. She knows she sleeps deeply and doesn’t wake up when she needs to go to the bathroom, so she needs a pull up.
Friday night, she did wake up once to go to the bathroom. I was upstairs just afterward, and she was so proud of herself. When she woke up in the morning, though, she was wet. She was sad, but still pretty pleased with herself for doing it. Saturday night, she tried it again, and woke up dry. What a happy girl! She was so excited to tell everyone she knew that she had done it. And, of course, her favorite and most important person to tell was Maggie. Oh, how she loved telling her big sister that she had done something that moved her so much further into the “big girl” category with her.
Sunday night there was no stopping her. She woke up wet on Monday, but had firmly planted herself in the “sleeps in underwear” category of kids. This morning she woke up dry again and is almost looking forward to going to bed tonight so she can do it again. Because she’s decided THIS is her time, and she’s going to take advantage of it.
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