a little bit of courage

Yesterday, I took Collin to his first "drop off" swim class - he was super excited, I was a bit nervous, especially after they told me that the class was going to be in the normal, adult pool and not the kiddie wade pool. What? But sure enough, with just a little bubble floater on his back, he joined the class and "swam" (with a kickboard or noodle and the instructor had to help him quite a bit) several lengths of a normal-size pool! What was cool though - despite me holding my breath and smiling like I was totally comforable with my little non-swimming 4-year old in the deep end of the pool (the instructor was there and there was also a life guard around, but still!) - was that I could see he was scared too, but mixed in with his look of fear was, I think, a bit of determination. He stuck it through - finished the class, looking slightly uncomfortable the whole time, and then came out with a big smile. Later that night, as we told his dad about the class, I explained to Collin that what he experienced yesterday was courage and hard work, and I was proud of him. It also made me realize that as he gets (just a little bit) older, his milestones are changing from purely physical/cognitive developments (crawling, walking, talking) to more subtle (but oh so important) character developments. I suppose this is obvious, but it was still a bit surprising for me. It took us awhile to explain courage to him - not just doing things to be brave, but choosing to do good things, even when it's a little scary. Not sure if he really gets it, but the "proud mama" moment was definitely a milestone for me. :)