Julian Holland has learned an important lesson and is lucky his mother's instincts kicked in when she discovered he was in danger.
"I was swimming for a little bit and I grabbed onto the ice," said Holland. "My mama saved me."
"I just kind of had to crash through it all," said mother Angela Cassidy. She was inside when she heard the screams. She thought the kids were playing in front of the house not in back, near the pond.
"I saw him all the way on the other end of the pond and, just, instinct took over," said Cassidy. "I just jumped, and I guess I probably did more of a dive, and my head took the brunt of the impact."
The impact on the ice was so hard she now has a black eye and several staples, but she reached Julian in less than two minutes, well before rescuers arrived. Doctors said his core temperature dropped but he did not swallow much water.
"As a dad, I would jump in too," said Carpentersville Fire Chief John Schuldt who praises the mom's quick actions, especially considering it was a small pond, but he cautions people against the instinct to jump in.
"You've got to do it safely, too, because if you go in there and you become a victim, you're not doing your child or anybody any good," said Schuldt.
Over and over again, this family says they reminded Julian and his older sister about the dangers of going on the pond, and over and over again they said, "We know." The family believes that is the lesson everyone can learn here.
"There's still that moment when they're going to test it, and you're not God, you can't be there all the time, but thankfully, his angels were there preserving us from could have been a tragedy," said grandfather Wesley Cassidy.
Julian said he is "never going to go in [the pond] or by it." Let's hope he means it - this time.
