Renee Israel

Hi Judy,

I just wanted to let you know how invaluable your classes were to my 16 month old Mason while we were on a family holiday in Vermont in early October. I originally chose to have Mason start classes at the age of 9 months because our home there is on a lake. But I never would have guessed that he would have put his lessons to the test on a kiddie ride at a local fair.

We took an outing with several families to Bromley’s Alpine Slide and Fair. At the fair, there was a bumper boat ride for children under the age of 6. Mason was all excited to get on one of the boats. I thought to myself, there is no way I would put Mason in there had he not known how to float and swim. But I figured, in the very rare instance that he did fall out, he would know what to do. He was thoroughly enjoying himself — so much so, that I paid for him to ride 2x more. Well, on that third go, he decided he was done and was ready to get off. He stood up in the boat and the rest is a blur — it all happened so fast. I still don’t know if he jumped or lost his balance. Nonetheless, fully clothed in a polo shirt, jeans, diaper and little boots, in he went. Interestingly, my first thought was not that he would drown, but that he might hit his head on the bottom of the pool, which was only about 2 feet deep! But unscathed, he surfaced, gave a kick or two and flipped on his back. He did it so quickly that I and the girls operating the ride didn’t have time to jump in to “save him.” But he was very quickly scooped up out of the water by the ride operator closest to him, who handed him to me in a towel, assuring me this had never happened before. My soaking wet raga-muffin just looked at me in a daze. I was a little concerned that he was shocked by the cold water. But when he turned back toward the ride and made the sign for “more” I laughed out loud, while the ride operators and every spectator were totally stupefied by what they had just seen. Thanks for all your work.