Wow, and go Grace go! I love that she wants to go swimming RIGHT NOW.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GRACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Us too! I'm just a little nervous to be too excited.

What -t said.

We've been using swimming at the motive for a long time. It's basically the one thing she needs to be without a trache for. Given how we have lived it's the biggest thing she can't do because of a trache.

Grace in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit showing off her band-aided but naked neck. [link]

Grace! Hope she gets used to the new sensations quickly. Does she have to do pt to clear her throat and whatever? (Toilet under a cabinet-when I first read that, I wondered if some sort of weird autocorrect. I can't quite picture it.) Tell her I can't wait to get to swim with her. And that's a lovely thing for her to find to focus on.

AC installed in the bedroom. I didn't get sweaty this time, but there was a thunderstorm and I had to crawl out on the porch roof during in, so maybe I couldn't tell/was preemptively cooled. Noticeably getting drier in the house.

Interesting pool conversation. Guy next to me asked if I got shoulder pain 'right here.' Um, yes. Ex-competitive swimmer from Cameroon. Hasn't been in training since 2008. Swam in Barcelona. Anyway, he had constructive critiques of my form ("you have to be hurting *here* and *here* when you are not swimming. But not hurting during swimming, yes?") and was all " you just have to focus..." and I started laughing. I swim to zone out . That's why when bad forms creep in I have a helluva time correcting them (hence slower lap creep since 2 years ago. I used to almost do 2 miles in the time it takes me to do my 1.5 on a bad day, uhg.)

Anyway, we had a fun conversation about the difference in mindsets between a competitive swimmer (even an ex) and someone like me. He loves to swim, but on some level, it still feels like a 'job' and he's trying to get away from that and just enjoy the movement. And I'd like to get better, but taking that as a challenge defeats its primary purpose for me. I told him I'd give it some thought and maybe, MAYBE let him help me out a bit. 'But if it gets me mad, I can't have that.' We'll see.

Aw, Grace. She looks so proud!

sara, similar to this [link] but with no toilet paper hanging there.

Swimming sometimes feels like a job to me, but only because some days I just do not feel it.

What a great picture!

That's really interesting, sarameg. You don't find that focusing on your form is useful for getting your mind off of whatever else might be bugging you?

Eta: so the toilet sort of folds out?