And it didn't even happen at home. It happened at the pool. I suggested swimming at the Y this morning as a fun activity for day off from school number 3,275. Not even a snow day today. Teacher in-service day. But after a snow day Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday... we needed to get out and do something. So I suggested swimming. Erin was enthusiastic. Dexter said sure, and then looked outside. At the bright sunny sky. Not a cloud in sight. I could see the flicker of doubt. "I'll just swim on the side where Erin swims. Away from the sun spots.", he said.
And so we went. And after an hour or so of playing in the shallow end, and bravely checking out the condition of the slide and deciding that the sun spot on the other end of the pool was not going to keep him from sliding (this in and of itself was a big big deal and has never happened before), Dex was still not any closer to going in the deep end with the sun spot. So I looked over at the sun spot and dared him. "I bet you can't swim to that sun spot over there," I said.
Damned if it didn't work. He swam over that direction. Hesitated, and looked back at me. "I can swim over there if you come with me," he said. OK. Deal. C'mon, Erin. We're swimming to a sun spot.
He swam to it. He swam through it. He stayed next to it, put his head under the water and looked at it through his goggles. He got out of the pooled and JUMPED IN to it. And he told me several times during the day "I am not afraid of sun spots any more, Mama."
Thank the lord, big guy, because the time changes on Sunday and you know what's going to be in the pool during your swim lesson? Lots and lots of sun spots. Which you have confidently assured me will no longer be an issue.
It's been two years with this sun spot thing. For an entire year, bless her heart, his amazing preschool swim instructor would look out her window on Dexter's lesson day just hoping it would be cloudy. His teacher this session was his teacher in the fall, as well. She remembered his fear, but couldn't do anything about it on Monday as Dexter is now in a class that swims in a lap lane. So she can't move the whole class to a sun spot-free section of the pool, like she did in the fall. She was lovely and accommodating at his lesson on Monday. But if Dexter remembers that he's not afraid any more, it's going to make lessons so much easier.
As a special reward, Dexter got a new rocket ship lamp for his room today. He's very excited about it. I meant to take a picture of it, but then I had to get Erin out of the shower and watch her pet Buddy and hope she didn't pee on the floor because she was just wearing a bathrobe and not a diaper.
Speaking of Erin... she didn't do anything monumental today. Sun spots are no biggie to her. So she happily jumped in the sun spot, and swam through the sun spot, and also jumped in to the pool about 792 other times. But she WAS very excited that I pulled a Thomas the Train tee shirt out of the basement for her today after nap time. She's been wanting me to find it for her for about a week now, ever since she saw some other kid wearing a Thomas shirt. So here's the picture I have from today. Erin, wearing a Thomas shirt over her black long-sleeve shirt. With her pink striped leggings. And her "It never got brushed after swimming" hair. It's quite a look.
PS - I DO have pictures and a video of Dexter from yesterday, playing in eight inches of snow. Here's the link to the video. Here's the link to the pictures.
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