Maria and Mario took the plunge today.  Maria had taken it on Saturday and Mario was determined to follow.  

On Saturday, one of Maria’s friends bragged about going off the low diving board.  I could tell that Maria was thinking about it when he walked away.  I asked her if she wanted to give it a try, and to my surprise, she said “yes.”  She is such an enigma.  She does not want to swim much or put too much effort in splashing around with her brother but she decides to plunge off the low dive.  She has some daredevil in her.  I had to swim over to the edge of the low dive on her first jump because she was nervous of the height.  The lifeguard yelled at me about staying at the ladder so the next jump I had to stay a little farther away (although I ended up disobeying the lifeguard and getting pretty close to her again).  Today, she braved it and jumped with me hanging on to the ladder at the side of the pool.  I had to swim out to help her get her bearings but she did it all by herself! 

Mario shook and shivered while he stood one foot from the edge of the low dive board.  I had to literally stand under the board to get him to jump.  Luckily, the kids and adults were super patient and waited while Mario debated jumping off for three minutes.  When he finally decided to jump, he held his arms out and jumped feet first into the water.  Perfect!  He was charged up when he rose up from the dive shaking his head and smiling hard.  His next jump was not as pretty – he did a 90% belly flop.  When he rose up, that big smile was a grimace and he turned to me to say “My tummy hurts.” 

After the belly flop, we took a break from the diving board and played in the water.  We played shark and beauty parlor (Mario dunks me to do my hair and Maria applies my makeup).  Mario went to the baby pool while Maria and I ate cheez-its.  Mario met a few friends in the pool and began playing splashing games.  He dove in the water face first with his darlin’ goggles on and shot up out of the water yelling “Did you see that mom?!” 

He was a complete pill to try to get to leave.  Last year, he was begging to go after 20 minutes because he was so cold.  This year, I have a feeling he has taken a different turn.  Granted, it was 90 degrees today and the water was comfortable – not freezing like a lot of days last year so we’ll see once this hot streak ends.  On the stroller ride home, Mario stared out into space.  I asked what was wrong, and he didn’t respond right away.  After a few seconds, he finally replied “Mom, I just wish I could be at the pool right now.”  Maria, being the diplomatic one, told him that we would head back this week and have a lot of fun but that we had to head over to Aunt Carrie and Uncle Patrick’s house now.  Mario turned to her and said “Ok, Ri” and Maria patted his head.  Ahh, I could eat these two babes up at times like those.