HEADING INTO DEEPER WATERS

There are certain points in your kids’ lives when as a parent, you feel as though you just saw them get a little older or more mature, right before your eyes. It is as though you blink, and all of sudden, there is a metamorphosis that you knew would happen sooner or later, but weren't quite expecting at that particular moment. Many times, it is something that happens that to most anyone else who was observing would be quite unobtrusive....something that would barely register a blip on the radar. To a parent though, it is often one of those moments that brings conflicted joy - - - happiness because you are so proud of your child, yet a little sadness because it provides yet another visible milestone that points out to you that your baby isn't such a baby anymore.

I had one such moment yesterday. Chris and the kids and I had gone to my cousin's house to swim for the afternoon. The kids both love swimming and had a ball playing in the water. Aleita is finally tall enough this year to stand in the shallow end, which to her, is in an accomplishment in itself. My big surprise, however, came from Maggie. This summer, she has been attending a summer program at our church. Nearly every day, they go to the town pool from 1 - 3PM in the afternoon. Apparently, my little girl who used to be so afraid of the water and never wanted to get her face wet has overcome her fears during her time spent at the pool.

Yesterday, I couldn't believe how well she was swimming....this from the child who refused to even get her face wet. Maggie took two sets of swimming lessons at the YMCA. During the second set of lessons, she locked up her brakes and refused to go any further once they got to the point that they were jumping in the pool from the side, even though it was where she could touch. She wanted nothing to do with something that would force her to get her face wet.

Yet there was my daughter yesterday, playing and splashing around in the water as though she had never screamed at me a few years back when I tried to convince her to jump in the pool during her lesson. I simply couldn't fathom that this was the same child - surely this couldn't be the girl who had clung to me in fear and cried until I promised that she would no longer have to do swim lessons. She was swimming so well, that I allowed her to swim in the deep end of the pool with me. I swam beside her, amazed that she showed absolutely no fear. By the end of the afternoon, she was jumping off the diving board and swimming a good five or six feet underwater before surfacing and swimming all the way to the shallow end. Who was this kid?

Yes, my heart swelled for Maggie as I watched her find that confidence that she had for so long lacked when it came to the water. The beaming grin on her face absolutely shown with unabashed pride. As I watched her self-assurance grow with each jump, I was impressed with her emerging water aptitude, yet it also made me realize that she is growing up right before my eyes. My pride was abounding, yet bittersweet. Her increasing self-sufficiency is sometimes hard for this mom to take.

JUST A DAY AT THE BEACH

We spent a lovely day at the beach today. Today's temperatures on the Isle of Palms were a wonderful 75 degrees and bright and sunny. We spent the morning walking up and down the beach hunting for seashells - - Maggie is very discerning in her picks, while Aleita simply wants to grab everything she sees - - with Aleita helping collect shells, the bucket is filled in no time flat. We had to stop and dump them out at one point and decide which ones to keep because there were so many. I actually found a complete and very pretty sand dollar. After we ate lunch, we got all the beach gear and headed back to the waterfront.

Aleita and Maggie played joyously for several hours, building more of what resembled war-ravaged structures than sand castles, but they enjoyed themselves. Chris and I sat in beach chairs and read, and occasionally helped in the sand building. Aleita's favorite thing to do was smash whatever was just built, so I learned to work hard to get my sand structures together quickly, rather than working towards perfection. After I would get five or six small sand domes in a line, Aleita would drive her plastic beach truck through my newly established community.

As it is April, the ocean is still fairly cold and only allowed you to get in about up to your waist before a wave would come up that would give you just enough of a splash of water "above the belt" that was a good reminder as to why you didn't want to venture out any further. The condo where we are staying has a heated outdoor pool, and it is also a bit cool, but at least more tolerable than the ocean.

Chris and I are both pale as can be, so we slathered on 50 SPF sunscreen on ourselves as well as the children. Around 2PM, everyone got it reapplied. The girls, with their darker skin, faired much better than we did. They have some cute tan lines showing where their bikinis were (yes, I managed to get Aleita into a bikini, though she did have a Power Rangers sunvisor on her head.) Apparently, I missed applying sunscreen on the area on both sides of me where my chest meets my arms. I also missed a small area of my cleavage. I definitely have some weird burn marks. Chris burned about one of the worst areas possible - - he says that he did apply sunscreen to the tops of his feet, but suspects that playing in the sand and the water probably washed it off and he probably forgot to reapply it. The tops of his feet are pink as can be. Tonight we made a run to Target and got Aloe Vera, Ibuprofen, and 70 SPF sunscreen for tomorrow. (I didn't even know they MADE 70 SPF sunscreen!)

Other than that, everything is wonderful - - I suspect the week will go by way too fast.