Tales of the Daughter: Sienna Goes Swimming

Sienna was grinning at me. The complete grin of a child having a fantastic time with complete commitment to being in the moment as, for her, Life doesn't get any better than this!

I felt really really bad when I dunked her under the water.

I blame my Mother really; she didn't now how to swim so I found no desire to learn.* I could dog paddle - though a dog would take umbrage at my flailing windmilling arms being compared to his fluid quad-pedal projection system.

For Sienna this would be the first time she would suffer the sins of her father. That is right, she would be introduced to something WAY before I was introduced to it. Hopefully she would learn to love it, or like it, or at least have a more positive reaction to it than I did.

I've known for years that babies love water. I remember some sort of PBS show where they showed six month old babies swimming through under water hoops. Among many children skills is a natural inclination to water and climbing. Or at least that is what TV has taught me.

Near our Virginia timeshare there is an Indoor Waterpark. The perfect place to introduce Sienna to swimming. A dual fact of (a) it's the South so you can do pretty much anything and (b) no one there knows us.

I didn't count on Danielle not knowing that children and swimming goes hand-in-hand. I had to show her on "reputable mothering website" where swimming with a less than one-year-old is okay. Let me interupt the thought process on "swimming" it is facing your child, sticking hands under the arm pits and towing the little one backward. At least that it the first lesson. I showed Danielle how to do it - it didn't take much as the physics is, Don't let go!

Within a short period Sienna (and her parents really) had mastered lesson one. Sienna giggled madly while scrunching up her face when she gulped in a mouthful of water. Danielle LOVES lesson one. Sienna LOVES lesson one. Daddy LOVES lesson one.

Lesson two. The child goes underwater.

There is a simple theory with human beings and going underwater. You naturally close your mouth and eyes when it happens. When you do this with a child there is the natural RESULT of said going underwater: screaming.

At least potentially and this is also where we began our story.

Want to eliminate a smiling face? Dunk the child for the first time. Sienna did close her mouth and eyes immediately and no I did not hold my child underwater it was a dunk. Two seconds.

Upon resurfacing her face turned to a mask of outrage. A bright red scrunchball of discontent that conveyed the ultimate betrayal in fatherhood and perhaps the universe. WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!

At least that it what I imagined Sienna was thinking. I didn't leave her time to cry in my arms, I handed her to Danielle. Sienna let out a plaintive yelp, a few tears**, jammed her thumb into, and gave me the stink-eye of betrayal.

You know what though? I'd do it again. Or at least have Danielle dunk her the first time. Sienna loves the water, evening being dunked a couple of more times. We'll figure out how to keep her in some sort of pool as it was a fun family event.

Wayne

* The fact that my mother had grown up in the city where there weren't exactly pools did not come into my thinking process.

** Sienna has crocodile tears. It isn't fair.