Ok, I gotta just take a minute here to talk about how amazing Mr. L was today.

But first let’s back up… I managed to get Little Miss A to the gym, library, Aldi’s, and the dollar store while her brothers were at school. I then finished a post for this blog, did some laundry, dishes and some how managed to make dinner… So I assumed I had put in a great day’s work and was going to chill for a bit before reading time with the kids before bed. But then I thought, ya know… I really should look through my pile of doctor notes, school papers, church memos etc. You know, that pile that often has mail mixed into it too?

Yeah well wouldn’t you know it, about 4 pages into my pile I find the swim team notes I had written down last Monday. The notes that said Swim assessments were tonight, and had started 20 min ago!

So I called the YMCA and asked if it would still be worth it to come straight over, or had we missed it? The lady on the phone told me that it looked like they still had 4 kids waiting to get in, so if we could come straight over we could probably make it.

And this is where Mr. L completely surprised me. I hung up my phone, asked Mr. L if he still wanted to do the swim team and then told him that we had to leave right now if we wanted to make it to try outs. I told him that it started over 20 min ago and that we had to hurry if we wants to make it in time. And not only did Mr. L tell me that he still wanted to do it, he jumped right off the couch- mid video game, pulled on the closest swimsuit he could find, grabbed a towel, his flip flops, goggles and ear plugs and ran for the van!

His sweet little sister recognized how important this was to her brother and she asked what she could do and I told her to turn off her show, put the dog in his crate and grab her sandals and would you believe it when I tell you that she did just that!? I don’t think I’ve ever seen her successfully get that dog in his crate before but she wasn’t taking any nonsense from that pup today and flung him right in and with sandals in hand she ran to the van.

Not only did Mr. L just put on his brother’s swimsuit, but he also left behind a change of clothes with the understanding that he would have to ride home in his wet swimsuit.

When we got to the pool, Mr. L answered the adult’s questions about his name and age without prompting. Then when they told him to get into the lap pool, they were halfway through explaining what they wanted him to do when paramedics had to be called because a boy lost consciousness and everyone had to evacuate the pool.

The boy turned out fine and the paramedics agreed that they didn’t have to take him themselves to the hospital. But the whole situation was concerning, and definitely didn’t fit any typical pool routines Mr. L was accustom to.

Despite all these bumps, and complete lack of heads up or warning, Mr. L got back in the pool, did the 2 laps they asked for him to do and then was pleased to take the paperwork and go home.

And NONE of this would have been even slightly possible a few years ago, let alone the fact that it ended as a good evening. There is like a complete list of milestones that my son just completely blew through tonight and I feel so proud and flabbergasted!

I remember a time when leaving the house for anything was a stressful routine. I remember a boy who needed a heads up before leaving the house even just to go outside. This son of mine used to need lots of time and his check list completed before he was ‘ready’ to go swimming. That same kiddo happily left the pool without showering and changing into dry clothes AND he was fine with going home after only completing 2 full laps and he is no longer that little boy who would have screamed and melted down if he had been pulled from any body of water before he was good and ready.

When the life guard quickly made everyone get out of the pool I calmly motioned for my son to swim over to me and I told him he needed to get out for a minute and without argument he immediately did. I gave him his towel and with confusion he then asked me why and when I pointed to the boy on the deck laying on his back, he immediately responded with compassion and concern.

However I turned both him and his little sister away because I didn’t know the condition of the boy and I didn’t want my own children to experience the shock of seeing life leave such a small child. Thankfully my children followed my lead and followed me a little ways off to give the crowd some space and even more amazing was that the boy was soon able to sit up on his own and could drink the water given to him.

The growth I have seen in Mr. L recently just blows me away and often I feel like I could just burst with pride. These kids are just amazing. And to think we had a speech therapist tell us that he would never speak, a whole lot she knew…

I’ll keep this blog updated on this new swim team adventure 🤩