Aqua Boy

(Before I start this, I need to say that I just discovered that Marshall has been wearing two pairs of underwear all morning. I was so happy that he got dressed on his own, that I didn't check his under attire. 2 is better than none I suppose? And one was the right way and one was backwards. Maybe he was covering all his bases?)

So my parents call Will "Aqua Man" because if given the chance Will will jump into any body of water, no matter what the temperature and stay there for long periods of time. And this summer it has become clear that there is a new super hero in town, Aqua Boy. Marshall has NO FEAR of the water. Loves it. Dunks himself all the time. Still sinks like a rock, but love the water nonetheless.

Swimming lessons are the highlight of his summer so far. (And a great external motivation...."I can't take a tantrum-y boy to swimming lessons.") The last day of the two week session they take the lower level classes into the deep end. Marshall really loves this.

Here's Marshall floating on a raft with the rest of his pre-level 1 class.

And then Marshall announced that he wanted to go off the diving board. This next sequence of pictures is priceless. Let's just say, I had a feeling this is how it would go, but the instructor didn't.

Marshall SLOWLY climbs up the ladder.

Marshall cautiously walks to the end of the railing.

At which point, Marshall realizes that there is nothing to hold on to and crawls to the end of the diving board and sits on the end. (Notice the other swim instructor furiously swimming to the edge to go up on the board and prevent Marshall from just sliding off the end and knocking himself out on the end of the diving board.)

Our swim instructor told me that the girl was going to "help" Marshall.

And by "help", she meant lower my 50 pound boy into the water.

You see, Marshall doesn't jump off anything. He's not a jumper. In the past year he has learned to jump from a standing position (big accomplishment) but he still hasn't completely mastered that. I think the we'll be taking gymnastics lesson after swim lessons are done for the season. :)