Before Tristan, there was a little girl named Anna.

Anna was always fiercely independent, and if she wanted something, she just went for it.  Just before her first birthday we bought a tiny cottage on the water in the quaint little village of Deltaville, Virginia.  Hence, Anna grew up spending weekends on the water.  She loved hanging out on the dock and looking for Kiki.  Kiki was the name of each and every minnow that she managed to capture in her tiny net and then put in a bucket of river water until it was time to release Kiki and begin the search for the next one.  She was adorable in her blue and yellow lifejacket, pacing the dock in her quest for Kiki.   Anna had swimming lessons before she was two years old, and when she was finally old enough to participate I enrolled her in an intensive swim program that focused on one thing: teaching very young children to handle water mishaps and avoid drowning.  They had the children jump into the pool, fully clothed including shoes (no lifejackets), and practice what they needed to do should they accidentally fall into the water.  She thought that swimming in clothes and shoes was a blast.

One afternoon, not long after the swim program concluded, Anna was on the dock (lifejacket and sandals on -little feet can get splinters on the dock).  Curt was with her, cleaning the boat as she conducted the daily Kiki ritual (no worries, she was never allowed near the water without an adult).  Suddenly he heard a splash and looked up to see her in the water; she’d fallen in.  Curt knew that he could get to her in seconds, so he decided to watch first and see how she’d handle it before he rushed to perform the water rescue.  Just as he thought/hoped she’d do, Anna immediately gathered her wits and handled her little mishap all on her own. She swam to the end of the dock until she reached the back of the boat, held on to the boat as she grabbed the swim ladder, lowered the ladder into the water, and climbed up into the boat.  And then?  Then she walked around to the other side of the dock and continued the hunt for Kiki.