Mason has a fear of water.

We've been partially thankful for this for a long time. It does make summertime water activities a bit more of a challenge. We never have had to worry about Mason wandering off and heading for a body of water. It simply wasn't in him. It took an act of Congress just to get him into the baby pool. With his anxiety around it, getting him in the water is much like getting my wife on turbulent flight.

Since he's 6 now, we decided it was high time we enrolled him in some sort of lessons and help him overcome, or manage, his fear of water.

You may be wondering why I titled this "Swim Lesson #3". Logically most would start at the beginning with Swim Lesson #1. But I'll provide a brief recap of #1 and #2.

Lesson #1 - Scream, scream, No NO NOOOOO, splash splash, I want to go pottie, I want to go home, splash splash, scream scream. (repeat for 30 minutes)

Lesson #2 - NOOOOOOOOOOOO, I DONT WANT TO SWIM WITH MR KAYL. No SWIM. NO SWIM. SPLASH SPLASH, NOOOOOO. I WANT TO HOLD YOU. MOMMY. DADDY. (repeat for 30 mins)

Today's lesson was better. His anxiety ramped up during the verbal preps, but it wasn't as intense as last week. His defiance lessened today and in the pool while he did fuss a bit, he was a little more relaxed and at times seemed to be enjoying himself.

Miraculously his swim instructor Mr. Kayl has an incredible way with teaching kids, many with special needs, how to swim. And amidst the screams and downright refusals last week, the information he was instructing Mason to do actually stuck.

When Rashele took Mason swimming in our community pool w/the kids yesterday, Mason (having memorized everything from last week's lesson) repeated Mr. Kayl's instructions out loud. "Put your hands together and put your face in the water and blow bubbles" then he'd switch to "kicky feet" mode and get in an intense workout with his twig like bird legs (inherited from me)

I watched awestruck tonight as he got Mason to wear goggles. A feat I've been trying to accomplish for weeks and he managed it in a few minutes.

He rocked.