Be careful what you wish for

We finally had a weekend that wasn't marred by thunderstorms, A REAL TREAT. We were able to get to the pool yesterday, which was Jake's first time for the season. We weren't sure how he would do, but we were hoping he'd take one look at it and jump right in to our waiting arms.

After all, we have two other boys who can't get enough of it. Nicholas has loved the water since he was tiny.

He can hardly wait to get sunscreened before jumping in.

Nathaniel is the same way. He's even developed quite a bit of STYLE in his jumps.

 This year he's big into the cannonball.

And since Jakey puts his head all the way under water in the tub and dumps cups of bathwater over his own head, we naturally thought that he'd jump in the pool without a second thought. But he had several thoughts. First, he just looked at it and every time I said, "Jakey! Jump to Mommy," he loudly said, "NO!"

The farthest he was willing to go was to stick a foot in the water, right at the steps.

Well, that is, for the first 20 minutes. I worked with him all that time on gently working his way into the water, then pulling him off the edge into my arms, then grabbing my hands and pulling him in, then grabbing my fingers and pulling him in, and then IT WAS A GO.

He gained a lot of confidence and caught some serious air.

The glee on his face was almost unbearable. The screeches even more so.

If he was in for a penny, this kid was in for a pound.

And every time he came up for air, he was screaming with joy. It was really something to behold.

So now Grayson and I are resting our muscles, our arm muscles that lifted Jakey back up to the ledge about 1,664 times yesterday afternoon.

Because, OUCH.