Our Two-Year-Old Sea Turtle

Yesterday Moses started swimming with his face in the water while wearing his robot vest (his bulky Speedo floatation vest, which he thinks makes him look like a robot). He told me, "Look, Mom, I'm swimming like a turtle!" Indeed, his robot vest did somewhat resemble a turtle shell. I was pretty impressed and took a video of him "swimming like a turtle".

Then, this afternoon Moses got out of the pool and asked me to take off his robot vest. He requested that I get in the "baby pool" (the non-heated hot tub which is 3 times deeper than your average baby pool) with him, and he stood on the step and told me to go to the other side. Moses then plunged into the deeper waters, and I naturally reached out to catch him. This act of motherly propriety was met with a vehement protest. "No, Mom, don't catch me!" he ordered. "But I need to catch you! You can't swim!" I replied. "No! Don't catch me!" he angrily reiterated.

After several more attempts in which I dutifully ignored Moses' adamant demands to not rescue him while he flung himself into the depths of the hot tub, I finally obliged. I figured I would let him find out for himself that he couldn't swim without my help. Well, was I ever proven wrong! Moses in fact swam across the deep part of the hot tub right into my arms. I was so amazed; it was surreal. He proceeded to swim back and forth again and again, then went down to touch the bottom of the tub with his feet several times, too. Previously, Moses would ask me to dunk him so he could touch the bottom of the pool, since he was unable to do so while wearing his bouyant robot vest.

Next, I suggested he try out his new swimming skills in the "big pool" and he did just as well. Moses covered even longer distances than the diameter of the hot tub, completely unassisted with his face underwater (I was crouched at the edge of the pool capturing the magic on video). He kept proclaiming "I'm so brave!" and beamed with pride as he swam sans floatation device in deep water.

I am completely amazed that Moses figured out how to swim all by himself in just a couple weeks. Our pool has been open for less than a month, and while the husky twins braved the frigid waters from opening day onward, skinny Moses was reluctant to get his feet wet until after the Memorial Day holiday ushered in warmer temperatures. I never even expected that he would learn to swim this Summer, let alone before Summer officially even begins, and before he's even two and a half years old (just for the record, he's 2 years and 3 months). The twins learned to swim when they were 3 and a half, and I thought that was pretty impressive.

I guess this is just another example of Moses' determination to be "one of the boys". Never mind that he is over 3 years younger than his older brothers. If he sees the twins doing something, he won't quit until he can do it, too.