The Summer She Learned to Swim

The day after Brenna's birthday, she and I packed up and headed to Mom and Dads for a few days.  Like always, Brenna enjoys her visits to Mississippi because she never hears the word "no" while we're there.  She gets to do all the things that she enjoys with an ever attentive audience.  Mawmaw says yes to things like eating Chef-Boyardee in the living room while watching her favorite show and drinking pink lemonade (big no-no at our house).

Brenna got to build and paint a new birdhouse to add to Mawmaws "Made by Brenna" collection.

And she chased butterflies through Mawmaw's petunias.

But, the big fun was in the swimming pool.  She spent most of her waking hours in the pool.  Since Brenna enjoyed surfing in Bermuda so much, Mawmaw had a brand new surf board waiting for her when we got there.  This, along with a alligator head pool noodle and a cheap inflatable ring, led to hours of water fun.  Since Brenna actually goes under the water now, I remember to bring my old underwater camera to play around with.  Up until now, it hasn't gotten much use other than a couple of snorkeling trips on vacations.

In my mind this will forever be remembered as the summer she learned to swim.  It's been amazing to watch her overcome something that she's struggled with so much.  I couldn't be more proud of how she overcame her fears and jumped right in, literally!  The gradually improvement over 4 weeks of swim lessons and lots of playtime hours at the pool with friends has led to total aqua-independence!  I hope that somewhere down the road when she's facing another fear, I can reminder her of how brave and courageous she was this summer and she'll understand that she's stronger than she thinks.