Audrey's Underwater Adventures

The YMCA welcomes Audrey to the main stage (pool), making it the place to be on Saturday mornings. That's right, my little perch is learning to swim. Six weeks at the Y will not prepare her for olympic greatness, but she seems to be enjoying her time in the water. She is particularly fond of the floating flowers you toss out to practice the "reach and pull," and she loves the swim class version of "wheels on the bus," which involves a good deal of splashing and baby tossing.

One of Audrey's favorite things to do while waiting for class to begin is to scoot across the floor on her bottom and try to covertly steal the equipment used by Adam's swim class. Do you remember the scene from Poltergeist where Carol Ann slides across the kitchen floor while sitting with her legs crossed? It looks something like that. In a moment, Audrey is five feet away grabbing a kickboard and giggling.

In addition to swimming, Audrey has added a few other big girl tricks to her bag. She is drinking much better from a sippy cup (now the prefered method of milk delivery unless she is really tired), pulling herself to a stand against objects for support, and doing some sort of crawl that appears to have originated in a battle trench. She is clearly getting stronger. She is also clearly getting a stronger will. Anyone who thinks that kids with disabilities don't assert their position convincingly should meet my daughter. I think I'm in trouble when she has words to go with those expressions of hers. I wonder if it will be cute or annoying when she is able to say, "Woman, if you even attempt to put that brush near my yogurt-encrusted hair, I will destroy it and you."