Water Bug

When Samantha was born, a doctor came into the room and painted a picture of the future we would possibly have with her. He gave us little hope that she would do much more than breath. At least that was my perception at the time. He said she may never crawl, walk, talk, etc. Samantha has exceeded his narrow and pessimistic predictions. If we were able to see this doctor today, I'd like him to see how our daughter can SWIM!

So, maybe she's not swimming all that well here...but she has improved quite a bit. This video isn't the best example of her swimming skills, but it is a small illustration of what she is capable of. Here, Sammy walks off the edge and drops into the water. Leanne lets her go, forcing Sammy to save herself from the deep depths of death -- drowning. Sammy shuts off her airway (as to avoid water inhalation, which is evidenced by the fact that she does not cough or choke when surfacing) and kicks her little legs, fighting for the surface. Leanne does help her towards the end, but Sammy has gotten better and better at doing this herself. We're proud of our little water bug -- and for this reason we allow and encourage weekly supervised near-drownings.