My older son is the wild one, while his little brother is more reserved. Yet, the reserved one does the wildest things.
Years ago, when his brother was trying so hard to be cool and do a backflip in the pool, he just walked up and did it.
He doesn’t do it to show up his brother or impress anyone. He does these things just for himself and smiles humbly, with no fanfare when we’re all amazed.
He has this constant desire just to try things.
When we swim in the pool, he likes to see how long he can hold his breath under water, or how long he can snorkel without coming up.
When he was seven, he snorkeled for 15 minutes in our pool. He came up only because he got bored.
Coming around to this picture from last night, it’s a cold tank. It’s currently between 55-60 degrees.
He will stand in it when I get in, but he’s never gone fully submerged. But any time he can, he gets in. He often asks me to go out there, even when I had no plans on going.
Yesterday was one of those days where he was the one initiating the cold plunge.
I got in on the side and submerged only my legs, allowing room for him to stand in with me. Was fun. We stood in there for a few minutes and talked. Little bonding time.
Then, I got out… but he wanted to stay in. He asked if I thought he could go all the way in.
“Of course,” I said supporting him, and he did.
He went up to his neck for 20-30 seconds. Then he hopped out, proud of himself, and I dried him off.
Told him how cool it was he tries new things, and he went in the house.
I stayed behind to close up the pool and clean the pool house a bit. Before I finished, he came back. He wanted to get in again.
This time, he asked if he could use the goggles and snorkel.
“Sure.”
Then he got back in, and he had me time him.
You can see from the pic, he went for over a minute…
But that’s not when he stopped. Instead, that’s when he mumbled through the snorkel, still under water, “Tell me when it’s been three minutes.”
And he did it. Little dude stayed in the cold bath for three minutes, and he wants to do it again, today.
I can see the wheels in his head turning when he does things like this.
He’s in a competition with himself, and I relate to that. Makes me proud that he sees the gift in challenges and pursues conquering them.
