Freestyle

Here's the big news. We have an aqua tot.

An aqua tot with a new polka dotted swim suit. With pink flowers. And a ruffle. And buttons. Because it is important to have fully decked out water wear when you are the newest scholar at the local swim school.

There are four pupils in Emmie's class. We registered late, so this was our first week. The three other tots have had previous lessons, which explains why their hair is actually damp. They do official swim stuff like go under water. Emma, who had strong opinions about her face staying dry, focused on the "dry jump". Her teacher raved about what a stellar dry jumper she was and heavily assured me that we were on target for a first day swimmer.

A first day swimmer with a dry face.

Until...........Emmie got an idea. In the very middle of her lesson, she stood right up off her assigned green foam turtle mat. She proceeded to RUN across the pool to the big water slide and shimmie right on up the stairs. Her Oma, who was observing behind the glass window, began to hyperventalate and point frantically. I flew from my seat and into the pool area, in plenty of time to see Emma shoot out the bottom of the slide and into the waiting arms of a swim instructor who abandoned her own class to come rescue the renegade aqua tot.

Bingo. Wet hair.

I was (more than just a little) embarrassed. But, her teacher seemed unnerved. She even gave Emma pink star sunglasses at the end of class as a little prize. She said it was for amazing dry jumps, but I secretly think it was for the stellar dismount from the high slide.

Look out, Michael Phelps. We're in swim school, and we're making waves.