While in Spicewood I experienced one of the most scariest moments in my life, if not THE scariest. It happened on the first day that Charlie and I went swimming. We got out of the big pool to get a snack. I, stupidly, thought that Charlie would follow me to our chair. Instead, he bee-lined it to the baby pool and fell face first in. I was watching him the whole time, so I ran as quickly as possible and scooped him up in (literally) less than 3 seconds. He was fine, just a little dumbfounded. The scariest part was in those 3 seconds I could see him fighting for something to hold onto and then just floating face down in the pool, as if he had already given up. So, lessons learned:
1) Do not trust your 17 mth old to follow you, follow him.
2) Drownings could happen in an instant. Keep hands and eyes on the child at all times.
The other thing that happened that day was that a boy, who was 7, made friends with Charlie. Charlie was in AWE of him and thought that he could do everything that Rob did. If Rob jumped off some rocks into the water, Charlie thought he could too (at which point I caught him mid-flight). If Rob jumped into the water from the side, Charlie did too (at which point I caught his hands and gently put him into the water). Both times I was out of the water and on the side. No fear, this one!! The next two days at the pool where much less stressful or eventful, thank God!
Terrifying! I think I am going to investigate those swimming lessons next summer that really teach your kid to instinctively flip over on their back when they get in water. Will they be too old then? Water + kids = scary.
ReplyDeleteSo glad he is okay! We were at a party this weekend, a little boy asked for a piece of cake. His mom left him for 30 seconds sitting at the table beside the pool. He jumped right into the pool as soon as she left. I happened to be outside and noticed his little fishy face barely above water as his sister says, "oh no, he forgot his jacket!". I was able to reach him, but one more second and he would have been at the bottom of the pool. I like your new rule!
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