Swimming with the trolls.

My big boy completed his second round of swim lessons and I am not talking about let's have a good time and float on noodles. No no. This is 4 year old swimming lesson BOOT CAMP! I love it. Joy and Allison have been teaching swim lessons for a thousand years and have probably taught millions of children how to swim and as a parent of one those, I am grateful ( like my exagerations?)
He was a champ last year, I mean did everyting they asked, never cried, which is saying alot for boot camp swimming. This year I thought was going to go without a hitch as well until two days before the last day. I picked him up and he was BAWLING. Joy told me he hit a wall, was starting to fear when she was making him swimm to farther than he was comfortable with. She said just to encourage him and she knew he would do better the next day. I was not so sure especially since on the way home he was crying his eyes out telling me he never wanted to swim again. " But what about getting your water rockets when you graduate?" " I don't want ANY water rockets. I never ever want to swim!" Oh dear. We talked off and on about it all evening long. We told him how we are all scared of things and we have to conquer our fears, how important it is to learn to swim,etc. Nothing was working. James told him that night in a last attempt that the deep water was like a mean troll that the brave Keller needed to defeat.
So the next day he was dropped of without any fear, so far so good. I was anxious the entire 45 minutes before he returned to the car. Lo and behold, here came my precious boy running down the driveway with a huge smile on his face. Joy said he did awesome, far exceeded where he was just days ago. Music to my ears. The next day was parent day where we all get to come and watch. I was almost brought to tears several times out of pride. I felt pride last year but more because my little guy was such a character and fearless. This year it was because he had a very daunting fear that he faced and overcame. After parent day, my friend Luci called me and told me that she wanted me to know she heard Keller telling the other children there were trolls in the water. So one conquered his fear, the rest were overcome with it. Oh well.