Today I had a *moment* with my babies. My 9 year old daughter had to go to a pond or stream or marsh to collect a sample of the water along with an insect or fish. I drove to the small body of water I knew nearby and five of us walked over to the water.

Everyone was enthralled by the sound of the running water. We were in the middle of the city, but the sound of that creek was soothing, transporting the four children and myself to another place. My 9 year old later said the water looked so clear that she wanted to taste it.

I knew I wanted to keep the baby and the 5 year old away from the edge, since neither one of them swims. And, while I didn’t want the 9 year old to fall in either, I was much less scared to have her go closer to the water, because she is a swimmer.

She confidently walked down the bank to the big rock right by the side and reached down to get some water. Her arms were almost too short, but she managed to get a little water. It looked pretty clear to my naked eye. I suggested we cross the street to see if it would be easier to get closer on the other side.

The water across the street was still, and we could get closer. I was still really cautious with the non-swimmers, and while the two girls that swim talked big about crossing the water and getting close on the other side, in the end, I convinced them to stay where we knew it was safe, and my daughter procured a plant and a strainer of pond scum.

We brought it all home and attempted to study it. We saw some cool stuff in the microscope, but it wasn’t from the water. It was what was already on the microscope. After I cleaned it, we didn’t see anything.

But the memory of that short trip to the creek lingered. Ever so often, my 9 year old would sigh that she’d like to go back there some day.

Thank you for coming. I appreciate you. Because of you, I continue to strain to figure out what to say every day. The only day I missed this month? I fell asleep before my daughter got home from lifeguard training. Sorry about that. Sorry about all the picture posts. Writer’s block. And the videos? See above. But you’ve stuck with me through it all, and I’m grateful. Here’s another video. It’s from USA Swimming’s Diversity Summit. Know that it was the best I could do today, and I did it for you. Enjoy!

I think I mentioned my five year old son who can’t swim. He was born while the older two were swimming competitively, but they quit before he was old enough to take lessons.

And a few years have passed since he’s been old enough, and he’s scared of the water, and he thinks he should know how to swim, so it’s not a good combination.

We asked our daughter to find out if he could take one of her classes. Her boss thought that would work just fine, and told her to bring him today. So our son gets swim lessons, and our daughter gets paid for it. Nice.

Today was water safety day, so our son got to wear a life jacket and sit in a canoe, which our daughter and fellow instructor pushed back and forth between themselves. He thought that was fun. But the part he was proud of was when he jumped in the deep end (!) by himself. (still wearing a life jacket, by the way). This little boy does NOT like to get his face wet, nor does he usually have the courage to jump in the water. But he did it. He went under and came back up, and I think that boosted his confidence.

Then my daughter told him to swim back down to the shallow end. He flailed around but didn’t really move. He did manage to get himself to the wall, I noticed, where he tried to pull himself towards the shallow end. My daughter finished launching her young swimmers and came back to her little brother and helped him and another non-swimmer make it back to the shallow end.

The lesson was short and sweet. But I noticed something at bath time tonight. My son actually listened to me when I washed his hair. Instead of his usual irrational thrashing, he leaned back in the water and allowed me to rinse his hair.

In my house, that’s the first benefit of swim lessons.

I got the most animated I’d been all evening when I started talking about swimming. My friend and I both knew Pete Thomas, one of the Biggest Loser contestants, in college. I mentioned that I follow him on twitter, and she told me that he just completed a triathlon.

She looked at me and asked me if I wanted to do a triathlon. My eyes lit up and I started talking faster. We talked about being ready, and I said I wasn’t sure my freestyle was up to doing a triathlon yet. Not to mention my running. She said I could do the swimming and the biking, and she could do the running. I didn’t act like it, but I was thinking about it.

Maybe I should move from dreaming to planning on this thing. It’s not like I haven’t been asked to split a triathlon before. . .

Parting the Waters teaser from Jenny Levison on Vimeo.

I’ve got to see this movie! Does anyone have any information on it?

Lifeguard training is winding down. My daughter takes THE TEST next week.

Tonight the class practiced on the spinal injuries again. Do the math: a teenage girl saves a 300 pound man? Whata? She is bad and all, but, dang! Something tells me she will deal with children and call in for reinforcements when her victim is huge.

This class has forced my daughter to dig deep. She has given it all she’s got. I hope her practice in saving the big men pays off.

We’ll let you know how it turns out.