Diving and The Slide

Veronica is losing her damned mind this summer!  I don't know what is going on, she is a sensitive child and always has been, and I think she misses her teacher and her friends at school.  Maria is much better matched, age wise, to the girls in our neighborhood and to the girls that we meet at the pool and Veronica ends up tagging along or on her own a lot and maybe that's it, but it's hard.

We took a course of swim lessons and she did really, really well at them, but she ended up crying at the end of every lesson.  She and Maria were in together and I guess that was the problem, Maria is older and more advanced, she is not scared of the diving board or the slide and she would do both but Veronica wasn't ready to do either of them, so she'd end up feeling bad every day.  Then *I* would feel bad because she would end up crying/yelling/howling and throwing stuff at me.  So.  I have had to exercise some patience over the last few weeks and sometimes I have failed.  One time I told her Veronica, if you do not stop yelling at me I am going to smack your mouth and then she kept yelling and throwing stuff at me so I smacked her right in the kisser!  She hasn't yelled at me since, I am sorry it came to that because IN GENERAL I do not believe in corporal punishment but I am so, so tired of constant humiliation and shabby treatment that I did it and I don't regret it.  But I still wish it hadn't gotten to that.

She is so great, I mean, she really is.  There is no one sweeter or cuddlier than Veronica.  She is becoming a good swimmer and I feel 100% confident about her in the pool.  She is still so generous and nice with Felicity and in general.  She also has a beautiful tan and her haircut is still working for her and she is getting really blonde.  We have had a few low moments this summer but overall it's been good.  Here's a cute picture from yesterday at the pool, she was playing with Felicity: