Being in water is part of life for my family. It is definitely my happy place, and I am quickly realizing that it is my kid’s happy place as well. We have a lake house in Indiana that we frequent in the summer. The kids, like me, could stay in that water all day. We may participate in different activities in the water, but we love it just the same. We thought it would be a good idea to make sure that Benton had swim lessons just in case. We started him when he was one, and he hasn’t let up since. This may have been a little too early since we were stuck in the baby pool until he was three. They kept wanting to move him up because he was such a strong swimmer at such a young age, but when we told him he was two, they would say sorry and that we had to wait. Finally he was close enough to three and he got moved to the big pool. Since then, he has moved up four levels and is swimming across the whole pool (with some assistance). He is a really good swimmer for only being three, and he loves the pool!
Today was the first day that I got to take my daughter Finley to lessons. We wanted to wait until she was closer to two so we weren’t stuck in the baby pool forever. She was an absolute champ. She did everything like she had been doing it for months. Just like her brother, she is a natural. I wasn’t sure how she would feel when I had to “dip” her under the water, but she loved it. She would come up and look at the ceiling and say “fish,” talking about the fish hanging from the ceiling. I would stand her on the ledge, and without hesitation, she would jump in right to me. No fear! She did her cute little kicks and pulls like she was asked to. We chased down the balls and threw them into the basket. She loves the pool!
I loved spending the half hour swimming around with her, just as I did with Benton. I look forward to watching her grow as a swimmer. I look forward most to getting back to the lake house this summer and seeing what they can do on their own. I look forward to cannonballs seeing how high I can still throw each one in the air. I can’t wait to get back to my happy place and watch my two little fish swim!
A Second Inside My Brain 
What a wonderful first swim with your daughter! It’s great that you all share this passion for the water.
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I love your slice’s title! As the oldest of six, I remember the days when we would all be submerged in water, whether it was at the local YMCA, the beach, or the lake when we vacationed in NH as a family. My mother had a dilemma. She loved the beach, but she couldn’t swim and had no interest in learning how – she was terrified. Early on, she figured that if each of her six children could swim independently, then she could rest easy while lounging in the sand by the shore. And thus our years of swim team commenced. I swam all the way through my sophomore year at Syracuse. All of our children can swim, though only one showed interest in making it a sport for a couple of years, Once a swimmer, always a swimmer. I, too, am looking forward to getting back into water to swim!
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How cool that you swam all those years! It is such a fun way to pass the time. It’ll be interesting to see how far either of them decide to swim. I never swam as a sport, but they seem to love it!!
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Love the title of the slice. My grand girl swims on a team. I keep thinking I’d love to start in again when retired.
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Looking forward to doing this with kids one day!
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I, too, grew up swimming with my parents and love swimming. Whenever I go swimming now, I feel so grateful to my parents for making sure I’m comfortable swimming. It feels like such a gift that they’ve given me. I love the description of Finley in the water, and love the line about looking forward to cannonballs with your children.
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Oh – this brings back memories of my two in their early swim lesson days. Now they’re both swimmers – the 9 year old on a swim team and the 7 year old hard on his heels. I’m really happy for you that you caught Finley’s first lesson in this slice. It sure sounds like you have lots more swimming memories ahead of you. (And great title, by the way!)
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I definitely look forward to that!
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I love the water too. I feel fortunate that I live on a river. Something about water is so calming.
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Awww, this is such a heart-warming story! I’m sure that you have some really great summers ahead of you! 🙂 ~JudyK
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How fun Mark! I loved taking the boys for swim lessons! Although they both do great in the water, i wish I woul dhave made them continue lessons. I think the swim team could have been in one of their futures. They are like fish in the pool, it is awesome!
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I can feel the fun and joy in your writing. I was instantly picturing all of it. So fun.
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