Swimming

With some friends, I've got the girls signed up for swim lessons. My hope had been to get Megan swimming like Zoë was last summer before we headed to Utah.

I didn't even think about Miranda and water...

Lo, and behold! We have another water baby.

When Zoë was little we spent quite a bit of time at the pool (once or twice a week during the summer). She got to the point where she would jump from the edge of the pool, even the diving board, down into the water, go under and kick up to meet one of us. That all changed after she wasn't allowed to go swimming from doctor's orders.

She became freaked out of the deep end, and last summer I told her teacher to go ahead and push her. By the end of 6 lessons (two weeks!) she was swimming in the deep end! This year, she's already (at the end of 2 lessons) swimming the length of the pool, has started learning the technique for crawl stroke and back stroke. She's made impressive growth, and I'm SO PROUD of her! She loves swimming, and I think she also loves the recognition she gets for doing so well.
Megan? Well, she's been scared of the "deep end" (which is anything that comes up past her bellybutton). Still, she's nearly backfloating on her own, and she'll jump to you from the edge of the pool, and just last week she put her face in the water (with goggles on) and picked up 10 rocks (longer than 10 seconds under water!) I wish we had just two more lessons before we went to Utah, but maybe while I'm there I can work with her and get her swimming, too...

That leaves Miranda. Oh, my little girl, my "baby" who wants so badly to be a big girl like her big sisters. She likes Megan's goggles more than Megan does, and wore them longer! She is rivaling Zoë for being the youngest jumper, and she LOVES the water!

She will jump in if you hold her hands, and she's almost to the point of jumping in on her own (although I'm trying to get her to count so I have some warning- she did jump in completely on her own once, with nobody around, and she bobbed under the surface until a mom who was closer could grab her. She came up a little concerned, but gave me some high-fives!)

As I said, before, she loves wearing goggles, and she also loves playing with the Princess diving sticks. She even loves playing with them at home...

I'm glad my girls love the water. I'm excited that they are learning to swim. I am grateful that, the older ones at least, also have a healthy respect for the water and aren't crazy. I just wish we had better access to a pool!!!*

*Nope, sorry, this is not grounds for us moving to Arizona, Amy. :)