Little Bits of Trying

My little girl is made up of all these little bits of trying.

I tell her, “you can’t go back into the deep end until you’re comfortable sticking your face underwater.”

She loves her goggles but the climbing wall at the recreation center won’t allow them. She tells me this pool is deeper even than daddy and she’ll get lost underneath the lapping.

I tell her jump in, dunk your face in deep, swim strong. She tells me it’s too deep. So I call her out of this special pool that is too deep and that is too scary. I tell her until she is comfortable with her eyes getting wet and her face going under she can’t go back and she looks so sad.

But next thing I know she’s in the lap pool dunking her head over and over, hair in her eyes, little face scrunched so tight and I’m the proudest mom at the pool.

I call her out of the lane pool, send her back to the climbing wall and watch her try over and over to conquer this new challenge. Because now the wall is tall and she’s so small but she doesn’t stop.

Over and over she looks for handholds and footholds and jumps back into the water to try again. Until finally she is so close to the top and she looks back at me to make sure I’m watching and I am because I wouldn’t miss it for the world.