Many rivers, in fact. Large bodies of water seem to have been a bit of a theme this summer and the kids have swum, jumped, wallowed and frolicked in lakes, oceans, creeks, ponds, streams, swimming holes and everything in between. Sometimes they were even wearing their togs. Other swims were impromptu and necessitated (it seems) wet and muddy clothes or just little dripping bodies. Noah is at that wonderfully risky stage where he is all confidence and not so much ability; he can float and dive and do flips and swim under water but none of the above for long enough to be safe out of his depth. He is thrilled and proud of all this new accomplishment which makes it all the harder to have to try and get through to him that he can’t in fact swim, he can’t get in the water without a grown-up and he can’t just go straight to the deep end and hurl himself in with no warning.
When Amy was about this age and stage she received so much praise for her (barely existent) swimming ability that on one occasion she did just run and throw herself into the deep end of a pool where she promptly sank like a stone. Luckily for her a hero was at hand to jump in fully clothed and fish her out. Poor surprised kid – the parental learning curve is steepest for the the first one, isn’t it?
Cassia is under no illusions about her survival ability and clings to me like a limpet in the water. Except when she sees Noah jumping in from the side and her hard-wired drive to do everything that he does kicks in. When that happens, she runs to the closest part of the pool edge and – yes – throws herself in with no hesitation. You’ve got to be on your toes with her, or be at a very small pool. 
One day last winter we stopped at a lake to play on the beach for a while. Noah wanted to take his trousers off and paddle, so we let him. The water was so cold that as soon as I put my feet in all the bones up to my knees went achy and then numb. So I took my feet back out. It was winter, after all. Cassia, driven to copy Noah in everything as previously mentioned, wanted her trousers off too. Josh helped her with that and we all watched as she ran into the water and just…kept…going. We didn’t grab her immediately, thinking the bone-shattering cold would do the trick, but no. When she was nothing more than a cloud of blond hair floating on the surface Josh waded in and hauled her out shivering and, like her sister before her, surprised. She has a mighty spirit, that one. Daunted by nothing on this earth.
The older two have both confidence and ability in the water which is just as well or else it would all be too much for Josh and me. Two that have high supervision needs – including one whose needs are all the higher for thinking that he has none – are enough for us. Amy and Daniel provide the light at the end of the tunnel which gives us hope that one day we can go on trips to the rivers and lakes they love and not even have to get into our togs if we don’t feel like it. Might even be able to take a book. One day.
