Sunday, June 5, 2011

Summer anxiety

Yes, summer is officially here - St. Louis was hit by almost 100 degree weather this weekend. Wow, it sure was a hot one! If there is one thing that represents summer, I would have to say it is water. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of summer? Swimming? The beach? A vacation to the lake? Water.

As a kid, I spent my summers running through sprinklers and swimming. My parents had a boat and I absolutely loved the water. I want Sophie to have the same experiences that I did as a child, but my anxiety about her CIs is already in high gear.  I have read about various "waterproofing" techniques, but I am not sure if I want to risk it. She can go without her CIs in the water, but then she cannot hear anything. She won't be able to hear me calling her name, the whistle of the lifeguard, or the attendant at the water slide telling her to "Go!".

We went to the pool today and Sophie wore her CIs. At this age, it is pretty easy because we can just sit around in the kiddie pool. I was very careful and would hardly let Sophie even walk in the water without holding her hand. I was always right by her side, ready to catch her if her head was getting anywhere close to the water. Next year is going to be a different story. She will want to run, splash, and just be careless like a little kid ought to be. I know that this is going to be one of the many things that will set her apart and I just want her to be able to have summer fun like all of the other kids.  I'm not sure how we will approach it yet, I guess we will just cross that bridge when we get there. 

For now, I will leave you with a few pics of my summer girl having fun in the sun:




1 comment:

  1. She is soooo cute! We "waterproof" one of Lily's ears for the pool. We don't do anything for the bath or sprinklers. We just leave the ears on and, so far, everything has been fine. We do take the ears of at the end of the bath when we wash her hair. We can talk more about it next week when we get together. I'll show you how we "waterproof."

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