Thursday, June 17, 2010

43 inches..



43 inches is just tall enough to use your head to boost Mommy's bust line up.

43 inches is just tall enough to reach the faucet on the kitchen sink.

43 inches is juuuuust tall enough to sneak the ice cream from the top shelf.

43 inches is also tall enough to go on the water slides by yourself.


Corinne decided to try out the body slides at the water park yesterday. Up we went, full of smiles.

"I'll wait for you at the bottom!" I assured her. She shivered and nodded and stared at me.

The smile on her face as she splashed into 42 inches of water was priceless. She doggy-paddled her heart out to the stairs and squealed "AGAIN!"

And thus began the next 2 hours of fun at the water park. Up the stairs and down the slide. Rinse and repeat and repeat and repeat and rePEAT.

After a trip to the snack stand, she dragged me back to the body slides.

"Ok," I said, "but I'm not getting back in the water. You'll have to go down by yourself."

"Oooookaaaaay..." I could see the wheels turning in her brain; Would this be fun or scary? Should she really do this?

Naturally the answer was YES. Yes, of course she did it. And when she splashed down in the pool, all by herself, and "swam" to the stairs, her face was dripping with water and bursting with pride.

"AGAIN!"

Over and over and over, she slid down that slide. Her swimming isn't that strong, but she IS only 4, after all. So I made sure to always walk beside her on the edge, just in case.

When she shot out of the slide and went under without coming up, I was in that pool in a heartbeat. Less than 2 seconds and I had her on the edge, wide-eyed and coughing.

"You ok, baby? Take some breaths."

The lifeguard (who was only 2 seconds behind me) and I sized her up. She was fine, but a little shaken. Being stuck under the water with such a strong current is scary! I grabbed my towel, figuring we would need to relax a bit when she declared that she was going back up again!

"You sure?" I asked as she ran back to the stairs.

"Yep!"

That's my girl. My strong and beautiful 4 year old girl.

43 inches of pure courage.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

Just tell her - courage is fine - great, in fact. Just make sure that Mommy is there.

Unknown said...

Agree with LceeL !

Manic Mommy said...

The longest two seconds of your life.

Gremlin and I have been working on the difference between 'daring' and 'brave'.

You go, Corinne! Mommy's got your back.

*~(boom)~* said...

:D Awesome kid...

(But, yeah...like...that head under the water thing? EEK!...)

Kamis Khlopchyk said...

I love it! Go Corinne!
And way to go for being right there Mommy!

I, too, have been pulled under like that, very scary. Good for her for getting right back on the horse.

Shannon said...

One tough little girl!! And, a few very scary seconds for mommy.

Beck said...

She is SO much braver than me!

Poor you, though - stuff like that always leaves me shaken for WEEKS afterwards.

Anonymous said...

Cleverly written post! (Is cleverly a word?) I don't swim and am scared to death of water. DS is 5 years old and I don't want him to have the same reaction to water as me. Your post has loads of transferable lessons for me :)

anymommy said...

Beautiful. I love it. May she always have herself and someone like her mother to keep her head above water.

Mellie said...

Gosh she is brave!! Valerie is 5-1/2 and is JUST now getting over her fear of water. She will get in the pool, but still will not get her face wet.

Anonymous said...

I think it's awesome that she is so brave and adventurous at such a young age. Just as my mother did, I want to allow for lots of adventures in my sons life as he grows. However, respect must go side by side with brave. Wonderful post!

Unknown said...

You are right: she's strong and beautiful. Excellent post!
-Deb for Ouidad

Stacia said...

She is way braver than I am. I still won't go on water slides by myself! Not sure how I'm going to make it when it's my little one choosing to be so brave ...

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