Today is Sunday. Today is the day I get to go to church and be with all my little lovely kids. It's been a little quiet there the last few weeks through the holidays. We have a fairly young church group, so many, many people go away to visit moms and dads and families. They go home.
Some of them also go on trips or vacations, of course, like WE did last year (Disney Christmas 2007!).
One of the families at our church came back from a cruise this week, and their darling daughter bounced up to the Kids Church table to pick up her name tag and announced, "I went on a cruise!"
"And how was it? Was it fun?" I asked her.
"It was great!" she was bouncing up and down. "I almost died! There was this wave, and it tackled me!"
Mom smiled (a smile I can TOTALLY empathize with, by the way) and said, "Yes, we had our own personal life guard at the beach...." I smiled back.
I heard that story twice more that day as the little girl told others at church about it. She's so cute!
Why I can empathize: My lovely son.
Water is not really his best friend, but he thinks it is. He has nearly drowned so many times that I have lost count. We bought floaties. It didn't help. We went in with him. It didn't help. We taught him to swim. It didn't help.
I'm not exaggerating! It's happened so many times, in so many places, under the supervision of so many different people, that it's become a family joke: "It's not vacation if Jimmy doesn't drown."
Because, you see, Jimmy didn't come home when he was littler and say, "I almost died," like the little girl from church did. He would come home and say, "Guess what? I drowned on vacation! Twice! The lifeguard had to jump in once, but once he wasn't there, and then insert family member's name here told me that maybe I'd better just sit in the baby pool, but that wasn't any fun. Next time, I'm going to go in the DEEP end!"
--sigh--
The last time he drowned, he had gone to a friend's house. That friend took him to another friend's to go swimming. He pulled his regular I-can-swim-so-it's-ok-then-I-drown routine. Enter friend's mom's panic attack at nearly killing the pastor's kid. His response? "Don't worry, Mrs. ___, I drown all the time. Mom's used to it."
--sigh--
I remember when he was afraid of the water. Those were good days.
I'm not exaggerating! It's happened so many times, in so many places, under the supervision of so many different people, that it's become a family joke: "It's not vacation if Jimmy doesn't drown."
Because, you see, Jimmy didn't come home when he was littler and say, "I almost died," like the little girl from church did. He would come home and say, "Guess what? I drowned on vacation! Twice! The lifeguard had to jump in once, but once he wasn't there, and then insert family member's name here told me that maybe I'd better just sit in the baby pool, but that wasn't any fun. Next time, I'm going to go in the DEEP end!"
--sigh--
The last time he drowned, he had gone to a friend's house. That friend took him to another friend's to go swimming. He pulled his regular I-can-swim-so-it's-ok-then-I-drown routine. Enter friend's mom's panic attack at nearly killing the pastor's kid. His response? "Don't worry, Mrs. ___, I drown all the time. Mom's used to it."
--sigh--
I remember when he was afraid of the water. Those were good days.
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10 comments:
;) I'll have to let her know she made your blog! She will be thrilled! I'm glad I'm not the only one!!
My son is fearless too. He tells everyone, "I love doing (insert activity)!" when he's never done it before.
I just love kids. But I'm so glad that I'm out of the kid business these days.
I shouldn't be laughing but I am.. because kids are so cute the way they explain their life experiences. What are nightmares for us are adventures for them. My oldest daughter is a great swimmer but had a seizure once while in the water and my cousin had to jump in and save her. Now my youngest she has yet to even try and float by herself and she'll be three next month. She loves water now so... goodness I hope she won't wind up like your son! :)
Oh I miss Jimmy! He has gotten so brave in the water!
I love it.
My own little guy is already a water dare devil. He likes to throw himeself under the water and he definitely needs help to get back above water. I have a heart attack and he laughs.
Glad to know that I'm not the only one who has regular near death experiences with my son at the pool.
You've got your own little Evil Knievel! Not scared at all!
That's hilarious when you tell the story, I'm sure it's not so much at the time. How do you stay sane? Or am I making assumptions here?
When I was little, I had many a drowning accident as I was so obsessed with water. Water and kids makes me a nervous wreck!
OMG Mikki, that's just too hilarious! We moved to an apartment complex July 2008 that has a pool and the boys just love it. Tre (my 5 year old aka angel child) is a little timid about the water and won't go any deeper then he can stand yet. But not Jonathan (my 9 year old aka demon child). Oh no, that would be too easy for him to be "safe" you know. He's hanging onto those little float tubes they have in the pool and in the deep end where even I am afraid to go unless I'm within arm's reach of the wall (I can swim but not a very strong swimmer). He gives me heart failure every time we get in the pool. Unfortunately they are both "water babies" and would rather live in the water then on dry land so I'm just going to have to stock up on the valium this year I'm afraid for when they give me heart failure on a daily basis or I'll never get any sleep!
Thanks for telling me about the post!!!
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