To be a Hero

Most people know that Tyler pretty much adores me. I mean, I'm his mom - not too weird, right? He is quite the momma's boy, and most of the time I don't mind it. Now I can add another title to his perception of me - Hero.

A couple weeks ago we went swimming at a friend's house. Tyler loves the water (just recently) but is terrified of me letting go of him, no matter how many flotation devices are keeping him up. So while I was swimming with Emma, he decided to jaunt around the pool to the deep end where the diving board is. He loves to watch me when he runs, grinning and smiling (and wearing floaties, of course, which are basically useless to him), and watching my reaction. Well, I guess he forgot the in-ground hot tub was there and while he was watching me he fell right in, face first. There were a few "luckily's" in this: 1) The hot tub hadn't recently been heated, so it was maybe 80 degrees; 2) He was, like I said, wearing his (not-so-useless after all) floaties. I was quite amused by this, seeing no real danger, and while I booked it (as fast as I can "book it" in my state) to grab him, he started screaming bloody murder. He was above the water, but was floating on his stomach, not knowing how to get his feet underneath him. I can't imagine his terror, probably thinking he was going to drown, just waiting for me to reach him. By the time I got there he was a complete mess.

After he was calm, I used the experience to (nope, not to tell him that running around a pool is a bad thing) tell him that his floaties had saved him. I reminded him that they help us float, and now he can do it by himself (ha!). That didn't go over well. A little while later, he started saying "I fell in, and you saved me Mommy!" I told him it was the floaties a few times, trying to get him past his fear of floating/swimming. But he stuck to his guns - as far as he was concerned, I had been the one who saved him from drowning.

I have now decided that it's ok if he thinks I am what saved him. I guess I didn't necessarily save him from drowning, but I surely saved him from his state of terror. And what's so bad about being the one your child sees as the hero??

Also, today I read Letters for Emily. I really enjoyed it; it's a fast read (like I said, I read it today). There's one part of the book where the father, who is writing letters to his granddaughter, recalls how his son fell from a tree branch and was dangling from another branch, screaming for help. The father points out that his son was only a few feet from the ground (no immediate danger), but was terrified nonetheless. Once his father was able to get him down, the son told everyone his father had saved him. The father loved that feeling. That same boy fell out of a tree several years later, breaking an arm. The father felt that he had failed his son because he wasn't there like he had been before. So, I will enjoy being Tyler's hero for as long as it will last, hoping he never feels like I've failed him. And I do recommend the book - it had a great message and even made me cry. Well, most things make me cry these days.