Swimming Sasha

Sasha with a swim instructor

Two weeks ago, Sasha started swim lessons at the local pool. Unfortunately, her first swim lesson was her first swimming pool experience (not counting bathtubs or kiddie pools), so she was terrified. Her fear and apprehensiveness got worse each day. My husband and I experienced quite a mix of emotions as she refused her lessons and stood crying poolside. I was very frustrated that she wouldn't try. I was sort of ashamed that my child was the only child crying, screaming, and refusing to go in the pool or do lessons, while the other kids were running amok and fearlessly having fun. Sometimes I wished that she was a bit more dare-devil and adventurous.
But Sasha is just Sasha, and that's just who she is. She is a cautious child. She rarely gets in trouble because she thinks deeply before acting. And she is just like I was at that age. It hurt to see it sometimes, but her swim lesson experiences were identical to my own. May we each be blessed and cursed to have a child exactly like ourselves. Our children are unforgiving mirrors, forcing us to see our own faults and blessings with brutal honesty.

I did eventually sort things out in my own head. There are blessings to having a cautious child. Jon and I took the opportunity daily to take her to the pool during free swim, and swam with her to build up her water confidence. (My mother-in-law purchased a maternity swimsuit for me so that I could swim with Sasha, and I am grateful for that). And as I swam, it became apparent I am not exactly a good swimmer either. But we swam together and had some fun quality time. It was excellent exercise for me for pregnancy too, so there's that bonus!

Today Sasha had her final lesson and test. She failed her test and will have to repeat level one swimming lessons next year, but she gave it a very good try today. When I think about it, she had no swim pool experience at all, so why should I be surprised she would balk at it. If I had never been to a pool before, would I start diving, floating, jumping, and holding my breath immediately? Yeah I didn't think so. She's come a long way these past two weeks, and overcoming fear of the unknown is hard work.

Good job, Sasha!

A soldier visits home

The past two weeks were very busy around here. Cassie graduated from her Army AIT (advanced training) and returned home for a two week visit. Those two weeks coincided with Jon's 40th birthday and Cassie's 19th birthday, and Cassie was home on recruitment efforts which kept us somewhat busy.

She returned home on a late night flight the same day she graduated from her AIT. Some of her high school friends met her at the airport with us for her arrival home. It was an emotional homecoming with lots of hugs and a few tears. Cassie and I had a lot of text exchanges during that day as she flew home.
She had to wear her military uniform on her flights, so she was patriotically thanked for her service every few minutes as she walked around the airports. At one point, I asked her via text if she was in her ACUs (camo uniform) or her Class A's, and she answered that she didn't know. She was trying to be evasive and said I would just have to wait and see. I responded with something along the lines of, "How do you not know what uniform you are wearing? You ARE wearing clothes right?" and she sarcastically responded that she was not. I replied, "Well that changes the meaning of all those strangers thanking you for your service". BAM!

Cassie had a long list of things she wanted to see and do and eat on her leave home. Mostly stuff that she was homesick for while spending the previous year in the military. She had missed a local sushi restaurant. We took a few trips to the book store and the mall. The weather was a bit hot and stormy, and I was feeling unenergetic, so we didn't get to accomplish everything we wanted.

For Jon's birthday, he wanted something simple that Sasha would enjoy, so we went to a local amusement park. We celebrated with go-karts, bumper boats, a game of laser tag, and some video games at the arcade.

For Cassie's birthday, we celebrated with a barbecue with her friends. I was running behind schedule on the party preparations and didn't start baking her birthday cake until her friends arrived, so we made an event of it and let her friends frost and decorate her cake for the party. It was amusing. They put the candles on the side of the cake instead of on top.

There were some major festivities around town as well. The city we live in celebrated its 100th birthday, so there was a parade and a town-wide rummage sale event. Cassie went to the parade in uniform to support her friend, who was crowned "Miss Stillwater", and Cassie was almost put in the parade on the spot. Cassie, her friend, Sasha, and I went rummage sale browsing for a bit that day. Later on in the evening, Cassie went with some friends to a local Hill Climb event, which included night fireworks.

There was a day where Cassie's friend came over and they had a water balloon fight with Sasha. Cassie was being silly and hid some water balloons in Sasha's shirt so Sasha could pretend she had 'boobs'. Then a little while later, Sasha ran up to Cassie and pointed and yelled, "I see what you have there!". Sasha grabbed Cassie's chest, thinking that Cassie had hidden some water balloons in her shirt, but no, it was just Cassie's own chest that Sasha grabbed. That was some funny comedy.

Finally, the sad day came where I had to drop Cassie off at the airport so that she could fly to her next duty station. She safely arrived at her destination and is currently in-processing at the reception of her new post assignment.