Today I got baked

Logan Aquatic Center has free swimming for disabled kids on Saturday mornings, so I took Leah today. Swimming just might be her favorite thing in the world-besides her softies. It fun to see her so excited, but it's hard to take her to the pool because she really doesn't know what to do with it. Playing around in the water doesn't come naturally to her, so she gets nervous and insists that I hold her hand for about the first 15 minutes. She warmed up eventually and spent most of the hour and a half jumping in place. I did get her to walk away from me towards the end, which was a nice break. I don't mind being in the water, but sometimes the monotony is a little draining. It's hard to explain to someone how to have fun in the water by themselves-it's just not a skill I ever thought I would need. The only thing that seemed to work was to give some very specific instructions "walk that way 10 times, then jump 5 times, then walk back to me". She can only do about one or two instructions at a time, though. She made a friend named Sarah-an 8 year old with brittle bone disease. She was happy to jump around with Leah and even sang a few songs for me. In case it wasn't obvious, I got a little burnt. :( It feels crummy.

This is a picture that I have on a Paul Simon concert TShirt that Jen got me while I was on a mission and she was at a Paul Simon concert without me. Last year sometime, Leah looked at the picture on my shirt and said "Grandma!", which we all thought was hilarious. Today I was wearing the shirt and Hannah pointed at the picture and said "Ma!" I don't know if she meant me or my mom, but the sad thing is that Paul Simon has a mustache in this picture. I guess it's time for a waxin'.