"Super baby to the rescue!"

So Chakisae is now the queen of the diving board at our local pool. Yeah, I know I'm biased (and I know I'm bragging), but she is truly amazing.

She climbs up there, puts her hand on her hip, looks around for audience reaction (the lifeguards and the other pool patrons often stop to watch - I think she likes that), counts to 3 or maybe 5, shouts "Super baby to the rescue!" and then leaps into the water.

Jim is there, but she swims to the side mostly by herself. She swims by herself all the time, going underwater, trying to reach the bottom (in the shallow end), jumping in and off the diving board.

I have rarely seen a 3-year-old so comfortable in the water -- and so fearless. She is our Super baby.

"I like a bird, up in the sky!" Kisae jumps off the diving board

Kisae loved water almost from the moment she came home. So it wasn't really a surprise -- nor a credit to anything we did -- that she learned to swim like a champ last summer at age 2 and 1/2.

We recently did a four-session swim class just as a refresher. On the last day, she jumped off the diving board, three times in a row. Each time, she landed in the water, swam to her teacher and then said, "Again!"

Of course (argh!) I did not have my camera with me.

When we got home she told Jim, "I go diving board all by myself. I like a bird, up in the sky!"

(photos - top, spring 2008. middle, summer 2007, bottom, summer 2006).