Swimming

Sofia just LOVES the water! This afternoon, Sofia and Sam and I went to the pool club (I'm so glad we joined this summer, it's been terrific). My friend D and her younger daughter met us there, and her other daughter, who is in Sam's class at school, came home from camp on the bus to the pool club.

It was a great afternoon - very hot out, but the water was so comfy. And I had the added bonus of more than 45 minutes not having to hold Sofia! Mrs. G., who was Micah's first nursery school teacher, and her daughter had a blast helping Sofia "swim" and blow bubbles! Every time I looked over, all three of them had huge grins on their faces.

As I watched my daughter, I thought about how glad I am that she is so mmuch a "normal" part of our community. Granted, because she's so young, many people don't even notice that she's got Down syndrome. But I do know it, and most of our friends do, and still, there's nothing "different" about my daughter. Except that she is so incredibly outgoing (just like her brothers...and mom and dad, I guess).

The joy I felt at watching my daughter swim with other people was tempered by my current fear. I have a new "thing" on my back. David says it looks fine, but to me it feels odd, and since I can't see it, I'm starting to panic that it might be something serious again. So I tried to get an appointment at the dermatologist, but they were closed already. I'll have to try first thing in the morning.

It was emotionally draining, 'tho, and now I just don't feel great. I'm sad, a little shaky, and VERY tired. David had to go back to work for a while tonight, and the kids are asleep already, so I think I'm going to bed early, too.

Oh, and at dinner at the pool we had a very interesting conversation. My friend's daughter said that she had to sit on the bus with a girl "with mental problems". She proceeded to be much more specific, and we had a good discussion of why the particular behavior of this other girl made A uncomfortable. But then my friend and I tried to explain to the kids just why labeling the girl had made us uncomfortable. We think we were able to put it in terms the two 3rd graders could understand: we said that putting a label on someone makes a generalization, and a generalization could be something like "all &&& boys are short" or "all people from *** are ###". We managed to get in a small lesson about intolerance, Jewish history, and the wide variety of differences people can have.

Being a mommy is tough!

Oh, and no nap again for Sofia - but when David arrived at the pool (after 6pm), I apparently ceased to exist in Sofia's world; she wanted only "Dada". It was very cute.