Me-Ming!!

We finally got to go ME-MING!! (swimming) Molly is so funny. She NEVER gets excited about ANYTHING. That morning, she was not wanting to get up for school, as usual. She was laying in her bed, looking at the iPad, but only had one eye open. 

I told her what today was...TODAY we get to go SWIMMING at SCHOOL! TODAY we get to ride the BUS and go to the POOL!!

Well lemme tell you...miss always calm tossed that iPad, JUMPED up off the bed and YELLED.."DAD, BACKPACK!"  Daddy usually prepares her backpack while I get her dressed, then she yells at me "I, (she calls me "I" not mommy...thank you very much, daddy) "I, Tow-well"  and I might add, she was verbalizing all of this, which again, is something that rarely happens.

 I was trying to get everything together but evidently not fast enough and daddy and I both laughed as we watched her run to get into my vehicle with only one shoe on, and her hair not brushed.  I would say she was excited.

She had a blast..and thank goodness for the number of teachers that volunteer for this outing, because at one time, as always, she made a move that was too fast for me. She always seems to wait for that moment when she thinks I'm not paying attention, being the sly little skunk that she is. 

She slipped away from the little kids area of the pool, to the section of the pool where there was deeper water. Molly is comfortable in the water, and we have a pretty big above-ground pool, but it's all one level and she can't float.... but she doesn't understand yet that she can't float. She's been getting her dog-paddle and freestyle 0 stroke down, so she thinks she can swim and has no fear.  For some reason, and to the dismay of all parents of children on the spectrum, she is drawn to the deep water with this lack of fear. 

I have purchased a flotation belt for her, and had it in my swim bag, but wasn't given the option to put it on her. Bee-line girl had made her move through the pool, while I had to run AROUND the pool. 

We have been trying to teach her how to jump into the pool, but she doesn't like that. At the pool that day, I decided that we would NOT try to teach her to jump anymore. THAT would have been disastrous. She made the bee-line for the ladder, and started to back down into the pool.

 I was running, but not fast enough and hollered ahead at the teachers closer to 'GRAB HER!!'  All we could do was hang on though...that 120 pounds of water-balloon-down-syndrome flop&drop-body wasn't coming out of the water. Three adults couldn't pull her out. (UGH) Then one of the teachers ran for the belt, and I was able to show her the belt and use the ABA training (which was a stretch because the 1/2 panic 1/2 angry mommy just wanted to scream) and said MOLLY!! FIRST BELT THEN SWIM!! Finally, she understood we were going to let her swim, and allowed us to drag her out and put the swim belt on...and then away she went happy as a lark...she paddled over to where the boys were jumping in. She paddled over to where all the other 13 yr olds were.

After about an hour, she got out of the pool and was thinking about taking her suit off. I know, I saw the look in her eye. So I asked her if she was done. Her 1-1 was standing there...I think she knew, too! :-) No matter how much this girl loves an activity, she's only good for a short period of time. A whole hour was amazing to me...she's usually Miss 15 minutes. No Theaters for us. 

We gathered up her stuff, and instead of staying to lunch with the other students, we just came home. She did make me stop and open the back of the Tahoe, though, so she could recover her sack lunch, drink, and fruit i had in the cooler. 

Maybe...she'll take a rest this afternoon, and not destroy the house!! 

We can always hope.

***************************************************

on a sad side note...our little red headed boyfriend up there? our 'bobbert' the little boy who has been molly's protector and voice this past 6 years at their little k-8 school, was recently diagnosed with AML Leukemia. Please join us as we pray for him and his family while they fight this horrible beast. 
https://www.facebook.com/PrayersForBobbertRobertEvans?ref=hl