Going Under

I had nearly given up hope that she'd ever take to water.  

After all, our sensory-challenged girl preferred baths over showers, absolutely petrified of standing under flowing water.  Of course, we moved to Albania and our apartment was sans tub, so she had no other choice but to adapt to use the hand-held shower sprayer.

And don't forget -- the mere mention of 'eye doctors' would send her into full blown hyper-ventilation over the thought of having eye drops administered.

But then we had these weeks in Ohio at Nonna and PaPa's.  

In between taking loads of belongings over to the condo, packing boxes, sorting piles of stuff we'd drop the kids in the hot tub to have some water time.

I noticed last week that she started dipping one side of her head in the water, then the other.

Dare we hope that a full head dunk under water might not be too far behind?

And then she did it.  Going under water for longer and longer periods of time, feeding on our praise as she learned about holding her breath and diving for objects on the bottom she found joy in what she once feared most.

Above I asked her to smile for the camera.  She insisted she would only do it under water.

At the end of her first day as an official 'under water swimmer' she proudly declared, "Now I can get baptized!"

Oh Ellie girl, we love you!