Amy's Story: "Swimming with the Ashing Family"

This post was written by Amy Ashing.

Kacie and Karli were so excited for Emma and Ethan to come over and spend the night again. This time they get to swim! The first time they swam, they were in life jackets and wanted to be held the whole time. They loved it. My girls were teaching them how to blow bubbles. Ethan became pretty good at it. Emma wasn't showing much interest. Ethan liked to jump off the ladder, the high step. Emma liked the lower step. She just kinda scooted into the water. So cute. She was excited about that.

The next day, we put the floaty bathing suits on instead of life jackets. We were holding them and having fun. I decided to put arm floaties on them, so if we let go of them, their mouths wouldn't go under water. I thought maybe they would float on their own. At first, they wouldn't let go. They would latch on with their legs, like--don't you even think about it. Ethan finally realized it was okay as we assured him that we were right here; we wouldn't let him go under. The look on his face was priceless. He was floating by himself. He got so excited! He was repeating over and over, "I'M SWIMMING BY MYSELF!"  Yes, Ethan...GOOD JOB...BIG BOY! After he realized he didn't need us, we couldn't hold him if we wanted to. Now we needed to work on Emma. It didn't take her as long to let us release her. I'm sure because brother was doing it, by gosh she wants to do it too. She was very serious and insecure at first. Then here she is...floating ALL BY HERSELF! She smiled so big and was so excited also. Okay, twins! Let's kick our feet and move our arms. There is a tv show I remember LeeAnn repeating that says, "Reach and pull and kick, kick, kick!!" That's what we kept repeating and they would repeat too. Emma's expression as she repeated was hilarious! Using every muscle in her body, very serious and repeating, "RREACHH...AND PPULLL...AND KKIICKK, KKIICKK, KICK!! RRREACHH AND PPPULLLL AND KKKKKICK, KKKKICKK, KKKICK!" Priceless. Wish everyone could've heard her expression and voice! Ethan, of course, is saying it too, but not near as dramatic as Emma! They would say, "Look...I'm swimming all by myself." We would say, "We are so proud of you! Big boy, big girl!"

I'm so glad we got to experience their first time floating on their own. We love you, Ethan and Emma!

Uncle Michael,
Aunt Amy,
Kacie & Karli