Learning to Swim

I have be pretty quick today, because I have to leave for work in about 20 minutes.  I can do this, right?

OK.

So, yesterday was a very proud day for me.  My youngest, Jelly, is a water baby.  In fact, all of my kids are.  Peanut and Butter have taught themselves to swim after spending every summer in my parent's pool.  It's just something they did over time.  No lessons.  No real support from me.  They did it all by themselves, eventually.

Jelly, on the other hand, isn't OK with just waiting until it happens.  She wants to swim right now.  Which she does, with the aid of her life vest.  8 feet of water depth doesn't intimidate her at all, as long as she's wearing her floaty.

Yesterday, she told me that she wanted me to teach her how to swim.  She's ready to ditch the floaty and be able to swim around the deep end of the pool all by herself.  And also jump off the diving board... *gulp!*

For thirty minutes, I worked with her on trying to float and using her legs and arms to keep her above water.  She was nervous.  The minute my hand dropped from her, her legs went down to stand up.  Now, Jelly isn't afraid of going under water.  In fact, she does it way too often for my liking.  She's constantly jumping off the steps in to the pool and goes completely under... but, again, with her floaty.

She realized how different it was not having the floaty to depend on.  It made her nervous.  She realized it was going to take some time and swimming was a lot harder than she thought.  So, she asked if she could use the swimming goggles to help with the water that was splashing in her eyes and up her nose.  

And then something weird happened.  She put on the goggles and turned in to a freakin' fish!  I kid you not.  The minute those goggles were on her face, she kicked off from the side, went straight under water and swam from one side of the pool to the other.  SWAM.  Not floated.  Not walked.  SWAM!

She looked like a little frog..moving her arms and legs perfectly to maneuver her way through the water.

The minute she took the goggles off, she turned back in to the splashing, nervous, too afraid to really let go girl that just couldn't move her feet and arms together to stay on the surface of the water.

Goggles back on, and off she went...swimming through the water like she'd been doing it for years.

She asked me to buy "one of those sticks that stick out of the water that lets her breath under water".  I'm assuming she means a snorkel.  She thinks, and I concur, that it will help her swim a little easier on the surface.  

Crazy, isn't it?  Most kids have to learn to swim before they attempt taking it under water.  But, not my Jelly.  There has to be some kind of fish or frog genes in Hubby or my system... because she's not going to do it the ordinary way.  She's quite comfortable swimming like a fish...just not so sure about swimming like a human.

So, that's my quick tale for today.

Now, it's time to get to work...

Jo