"Joe, I'm sick."
With those three words, my day instantly went off the rails. Not as badly as my sick wife's day, mind you, but it was 5:30 am on a work day and I was trying to muster the brain power needed to kick into contingency mode.
"We could see if daycare will take her today instead of tomorrow," I offered.
"But her swimming lesson..."
Right. Swimming lesson. My kid adores the water and we've had her in lessons since she was an infant. Today was different, though. Today was her first solo swimming lesson. Not parent and tot. Tot and tot and tot and teacher. With parents sitting awkwardly in their street clothes on the pool deck, totally proud and not even remotely terrified that their precious babies are in the full-sized pool by themselves and oh my god why isn't the teacher holding her hand and holy crap doesn't he know that's water and that people can drown in water and what the hell is happening when did my baby become a person?
Ahem. So yea. Swimming lesson.
Eventually I realized I had to go into work but I'd take the car (I usually take transit) so I could take care of a few urgent things then zip home around noon in time for swimming and to take care of the kid for the afternoon. In the end, though, my wife felt well enough to go. But since I was home to help, I figured I'd go too.
Man am I glad I did.
The kid's had some trouble with some of the parent-less activities we've signed her up for. She dropped out of her half-day-per-week preschool after only a few weeks; she left enough dance classes in tears that we eventually stopped going to that too. Her cheerleading class has gone well since it started a few weeks ago but even there we've had to physically drop her in the middle of the room and leave without looking back while she cried out for us.
Today though? She was a champ. She had a moment of hesitation about taking a quick shower on the pool deck since she'd already suffered that indignity in the change room but once that was over she was glued to the instructor's hip as he walked them to the pool. She waded in without a second thought and enjoyed herself immensely.
It was a big day. And I was there to see it.
Author's note: There really should be a picture of my daughter swimming to accompany this post but since photography is banned in city recreation facilities I opted not to get arrested for my dad blogging craft. I am sorry. But her swim group is called the Sea Otters so the picture is at least somewhat relevant. And otters are adorable so there.
Printer-friendly version