2008 Olympic Diving Team

We're spending the holiday weekend at our friends' lakehouse. They're out of town and graciously offered to let us borrow their place.

Let me describe our digs: The 3-bedroom, 2-bath main house has a screened porch and overlooks the pool and the lake. There is a boathouse, a dock, a nice little yard perfect for chasing Tyler. There is also a separate 2-bedroom guest apartment over the detached garage. Seriously, life doesn't get much better.

When we first got here, Brian fell asleep. (He had gotten up very early and run the Peachtree. Besides, that is the kind of place this is: it just induces naps!)

He woke up about 6 or so, and we decided to take Tyler swimming in the pool. Tyler and I were out by the pool while Brian lit the grill.

And Tyler is so headed for the 2008 Olympic diving team.

As soon as he found the diving board, he climbed up on it. (Actually, he was very careful, and he didn't walk out to the part over the water.)

He'd already knocked his ball into the water. (A lightweight ball about the size of a soccer ball.) He was so cute, carefully laying down perpendicular to the pool and batting at the ball when it was at the edge. Then carefully moving down, laying down again and batting it back in the other direction.

Y'all, he was so careful that I got comfortable and I looked away for a split second.

And Tyler executed his less-than-perfect first dive into the deep end.

Can I just tell you how scary it is to see little legs disappearing into the water? I splashed in right behind him and grabbed a little leg as I was swimming back up. As we surfaced, he was crying, not coughing (which means he didn't try to breathe under water).

As you nominate me for Worst Mother of the Year, please know that I was within arm's length. I was right there.

He was probably underwater for 5 seconds, maybe even less. And he's such a spunky little kid. His daddy was walking out to the pool about the time I jumped in. Tyler held on to the edge of the pool until his daddy lifted him out. He calmed down very quickly, and after a few minutes of running around, Tyler let his daddy carry him into the pool. He played in the pool for about half an hour and loved it.

Since Tyler wasn't hurt and he isn't terrified of the water, it may have been the best thing to happen all weekend: go ahead and get the tumble into the pool over with so Tyler knows the limits at the beginning of the vacation. But it sure was scary to see him disappear into the water — and I keep seeing it over and over.

(Editor's note to her father: Daddy, I always thought you were mean to make us wear lifejackets on the dock at the lake until we were teenagers. Now, I understand! I mean, the pool is scary enough and the water is clear so I never lost sight of Tyler.)