Swimming!

Twice a month, The Princess's class ventures out on a field trip.  One of those trips is either to the store or to lunch, to help the kiddos get acclimated to places around town, and to help them learn about proper behavior in public.  The other monthly trip is to the special education district building to spend an hour in the therapy pool.

The Princess loves water.  She could live in the bath tub, I kid you not.  Previous attempts at swimming have been met with sensory overload, which - as we all know - can lead quickly to meltdowns.  The water is inevitably too cold, and she's not happy if she can't touch the bottom.  If the bottom is rocky, or in any other way unexpected-feeling, this is a major deal breaker.  There are lots of factors associated with swimming for a sensory-sensitive person...things I never would have thought of in my life before The Princess.

This was her first trip to a therapy pool, which is almost as warm as bath water.  Score one for the pool.  The shallow end is only 2.5 feet deep...score two!  She can see the bottom, and it's even and free of debris...score three!  Eight other children and the echoes that inevitably accompany such a group in an indoor pool: well, nothing's perfect.

Being her first trip, The Hubbs and I wanted to see the facility...and we were dying to see how she'd do in the pool...so her teacher graciously accepted our request to join the group.  Standing in the hallway, meeting all of the wonderful, sweet kids who attend the center, I snapped approximately one hundred and fifty pictures, and tons of video, through the picture window overlooking the pool.  I filled up my 1GB memory card.  No, seriously.  It wouldn't let me take any more pictures.

Sue me...it was kind of a big deal, okay?  After sifting through the videos and playing around with my editing software, I am proud to present SWIMMING...starring The Princess:

And for anyone who was wondering...yes, that is The Hubbs singing on the video.  Pretty awesome...pretty awesome, indeed.