Goggles And A Watch

I bought Ethan a pair of swim goggles at the sports store last week. It made a huge difference when we went swimming, as he finally liked putting his head underwater. The same kid who screamed and dug his fingernailes into us when we put him into the big pool a couple of weeks ago, was now gladly jumping off the side of the pool into mama's hands -- even after she missed one time and he dropped to the bottom of the pool. He really, really wants to go off the diving boards like he's seen the bigger kids do, and we've explained to him that he can only do it if he knows how to swim. Now (happily for me) he is super motivated to learn to swim.

He loves telling people about the goggles. "Ethan small goggles" he tells anyone he meets for more than five minutes. "Mama, papa big goggles. Three goggles!" he elaborates. It's the same way with the little watch I bought him. "Ethan watch" he shouts and shoves his wrist out to strangers. There are two Ethans at his preschool, and he explains, "One Ethan watch, one Ethan no watch", shaking his head from side to side as he conveys the sad 'no watch' plight of the other Ethan. Of course he can't read the numbers on it yet, never mind tell time, but hey, who cares.