My family went on vacation to Dustin, Florida. We went with two other pieces of our family and rented a house together. Combined, we were five adults, five teenagers, one toddler, and one baby. The toddler, Colin, had a sort of attatchment to me. He followed me around everywhere, and if he didn't know where I was, he would walk around the house saying, "Abby, Abby, Abby," until he found me. He understood almost everything you said to him, but he rarely spoke and had trouble forming words.
Our house had a pool, and Colin and I were swimming. Colin couldn't swim, but he had mastered getting around on his inflatable fish. In the pool, there was a sectioned-off area that bubbled, but wasn't any warer than the rest of the pool. Colin decided he wanted to play in the bubbles, but once he got there, he got scared. I was trying to help him get into the other part of the pool again, but he was wet and wiggly. I couldn't hold onto him. He fell into the pool face first, and the way the pool was designed, I had a lot of trouble getting to him. It was probably only about six or seven seconds, but they were the longest six or seven seconds of my life.
I got him, and he was scared and angry. The thing that struck me was how quickly he forgave me. A minute later, he was kicking around on his fish, sticking his toes out of the water saying "MY TOOOWWWSS!!!!." We played for a while, and my uncle/his dad, Randy came out. "Abby bot awah up my nosh!" Colin proudly yelled. Abby got water up my nose. It was like he was bragging about it. All night he walked around the house saying that.
Older people have a lot of lessons they could learn from toddlers. I can't say I've met many people over three who would forgive so quickly about anything. I was still feeling guilty long after he'd forgotten about the whole thing. It really made an impression on me.
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3 comments:
I like it. When I was a lot younger, I went swimming with my brother (before he could swim), and a similar thing happened to him. All I really remember is turning around in the pool and seeing him. His eyes were the only thing sticking out of the water, and because the water made stuff underneath look slightly smaller, his eyes looked huge. My clearest memory is thinking "Oh, look! A frog!" I wish I was a toddler again.
Abby! This is such a cute experience! Colin sounds adorable!
I really like the way you told your story. I think you presented your story in a very strong way, that supported your argument nicely.
You make an interesting point when you say, "adults could learn a lot from toddlers." I agree with this, and I think your argument supports this, but I'm curious as to what else adults could learn from toddlers, besides to be more forgiving.
I really loved it!
I can relate to your story. When I was younger, I went to a pool party at a friend's house. Her little brother was waddling around the pool, and his mother was distracted by another party goer. The toddler bent down to touch the water and fell in. The splash was audible, and everyone in the pool went racing for him. His mother, though, jumped into pool, clothes and all, pushed everyone away, and safely retrieved him. He was ok; he didn't even cry or have trouble breathing. I was so glad he was fine- for a few seconds I had been so scared. You handled the situation very well. And told the story just as well.
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