There is absolutely no reason for this post except to tell the entire internet about something cool Carrie did.

Carrie is terrified of getting her face wet, to the point that I have to lay her on the kitchen counter twice a week to wash her hair. At nine and a half years old, she still wears arm floaties or a life jacket to go swimming, even though she can swim when we make her.

But she recently saw an episode of a cartoon in which the two boys search for—and find—the lost city of Atlantis. Now, that’s all she can talk about. She has to go to the beach to find Atlantis, and there’s going to be a treasure chest with a princess crown and real jewelry in it. I’ve explained to her that looking for Atlantis will involve getting her face and hair wet, and she says that fine. Wow.

So when we were in the store the other day (Walmart, of course, and she was crying) she looked up for a second, stopped crying, and said, “I have to need that swimming mask so I can find Atlantis.” I told her that the swimming mask was just like the one she was supposed to wear last year and that she didn’t even put it on, and she told me that this year she has to find Atlantis so she had to wear it. We bought the mask.

We took it home and I had to make her hand it over so she didn’t cut herself trying to open it. I got it out of the frustrating plastic, adjusted the straps, and helped her put it on then told her to go look in the mirror. She ran to the bathroom, looked at herself, and screamed, throwing the mask off and launching it into the bathtub.

Baby steps.

Despite the ugly turn it took there at the end, this is a great story. A) She was in Walmart and actually looked at something. B) She wanted me to buy something even though she’d had a bad meltdown over the exact same item less than a year ago. C) She let me put it on her. D) She let me put it on her. And E) She let me put it on her! There was so much progress happening in this whole event.

Now I have to locate Atlantis because she’s going to be very disappointed when we don’t find it…

In uber-darling news, Carrie also had another HUGE breakthrough. We ran into a family who lives on our street at the pool two days ago. When she saw them, she immediately covered her ears and closed her eyes, her standard protocol for seeing people who aren’t “where they belong.” But after a few minutes, I told her to play with the little girl. Unfortunately, Carrie is the larger child…the one trying to ride on the little girl’s back.