Here fishy fishy fishy!

I'm a pretty liberal mom. I like to allow my boys to make choices, to a point of course! I believe its ok to fall down. They need to learn how to pick themselves up and work harder. I was raised in a liberal home. My mom allowed me a lot of space in high school. But she always knew where I was, because I called her every time I went somewhere else. Because I was so good about informing my mom, she let me do a lot. Now that Mondo is in high school, I've told him the same thing. As long as he lets me know where he is and where he's  going, if he shows me he can be responsible, he will be allowed more space!
Just because Arina has Down syndrome, doesn't mean she's exempt from learning how to pick herself right back up!
In San Diego, we have a favorite hotel that we always stay at. One of the biggest reasons is it has a wading pool only 1 foot deep. Perfect for a princess that loves the water! When she first went into this pool, she stayed close to the edge. She didn't understand that the pool was that shallow all the way into the center! When she finally wandered in, she fell a couple times because walking in water isn't that easy! When she fell, I would give her a second to find her footing, or use her hands to push herself back up out of the water. She learned after just a couple times that she wasn't going to drowned, that all she had to do was stay calm, and push herself back up! She never swallows any water. She doesn't come up coughing and spouting for breath. She simply closes her mouth, and stands right back up! She is pretty much teaching herself how to swim! I'm going to look into swimming lessons for her next summer.

This last weekend, we were at the pool. I wasn't even in a swimming suit. I just sat on the side and watched Arina play. There was another lady there with two young girls around Arina's age. She was coddling them both on her lap. These girls cried if she put them in the water, they cried if she put them on a chair, and they cried if their toy fell out of their hands! They basically just cried the whole time! When she saw Arina get in the pool herself, and I wasn't physically in the pool with her, she looked concerned. She asked me, "Is she ok in here? My daughter can't swim in here, and they look like their about the same age." I told the lady she was fine. If I had to, I would just have to step into the pool and grab Arina, she was only a few feet away from me! A few minutes later, as Arina was splashing, she lost her footing and fell into the water. The lady about had a heart attack! That is, until she watched Arina push up with her hands, and stand right back up. She looked at me with amazement as I said to Arina, "good swimming sister!!"