we went tothe beach yesterday, and ava continued in her quest to be the youngest person ever to swim the iron man course--she makes us yell one! two! three! GO! and she runs in and swims like mad, just like the racers do at the start. she has pretty much mastered swimming, though i remain neurotic about letting her go over her head, even though it is pretty obvious she could extract herself with no problem.

but yesterday, i asked her if she wanted to jump off the end of the dock (9-15 feet deep). "YES!" she replied. then she paused, and thought and said "but i can't jump off the dock in my lifejacket when the life guards are here..." i said "you don't need your life jacket" -- she looked at me like i was insane. i said "i will jump in..." at which point carter interrupted and said "mommy! are you going to do your special jump??!!" (it is so nice how easily one can be a hero to a little kid--all you have to do is dive off the end of a dock...) and i nodded and continued "and then you can jump to me, and then i wll help you swim in to shore. she did not even hesitate.

i jumped in, she "dove" (really a bellyflop, to which the entire beach went 'owwwwwwwww' in unison) and then she swam to me--i turned her towards shore, and swam next to her, with my hand out, lightly touching her belly, as she got herself to a place where she could stand. i really did nothing but offer moral support. the pride was unbelievable. again! again! again!

carter, meanwhile, offered encouragement from the dock, and ran along it, parallel to us, so very excited for his sister...