Swimming?!

E loves the pool. We'd spend more time at our local pool, but it's really difficult to coordinate getting home from work, cooking and serving dinner, eating, and then bathtime, stretches, and bedtime ritual without the swimming stuffed in there somewhere.

Well, today we did it! And it was fantastic, b/c we got to see a lot of our neighbors. What a great time!

I also brought a new thing to the pool tonight; Elena's swim vest. I confess, I'm not a big fan. I figure that it would be better for kids to learn to swim without one, as to have a healthy respect for the water and realize the danger and then conquer it without having a swim vest or arm floaties. And, more importantly, I tried a swim vest before on Elena--and was surprised, when wearing the vest, that she could not right herself in the water. I didn't want her to get a false sense of security while wearing the swim vest--and that goes for any adult working with her, too.

WELL. While I still feel residual anti-swim vest sentiments, I admit I am a changed woman.

ELENA SWAM BY HERSELF. While wearing the vest, of course. I was shocked!! We started out by just having her try to stay upright with me letting go: 4 seconds before her face was in the water and she was as stiff as a board. Later, after being at the pool for an hour, we worked on her doggie paddle. We do this every time in the pool--I remind her of her 'fish hands' (closed fingers) and to 'kick her legs', which she does reciprocally, as if she were crawling (we have not mastered a "straight-leg kick", from the hip). I pinched the back of the vest to keep her from tipping.

Then I let go--and she kept on going! Not fast, but as long as she moved her arms and legs, she didn't tip. The message started to sink in--that when she straightens her legs like immobile toothpicks (and her arms fold into her torso), she loses her balance and her ability to swim. Wow. Just WOW. Her muscle recruitment to balance herself in the water was really remarkable tonight--I need to get her in the pool more often!!

She made it 5 feet or so, swimming by herself, from the middle of the pool to the edge and then got her hands on the lip of the pool. Several times, too. Lots of times she tipped over, but we just started again--E laughing the whole time. Both of us were SO PROUD!