Pool Time

We took on a pretty big task a few weeks ago- swimming lessons. Just thinking back on that week makes me start to sweat-or maybe it's that it's 150 degrees, I'm not sure- but either way, we signed up! Our sweet friend Paige has a GORGEOUS pool at her house and does lessons nonstop for most of the month of June. The best! We will be taking them every year!
Caroline was a little, shall we say, timid of the water. Really that is being generous. She does not like getting her face wet. She has to have a towel next to her bathtub so she can wipe off her face should a stray drop slide down her brow. She really wanted to be brave. Before we took lessons, she would stick the two sprigs of hair on the back of her head in the water and say "See Mommy, I can put my head in. We don't need to go to Mrs. Paige's." Anyway, the week came and Caroline was actually excited!
Really the first 3 days she cried pretty much the entire lesson. Not pretty! I was so frustrated, but then I remembered crying at my lessons, so I tried to show her some grace- not my strongest gift. She always was excited to go and swim with Lola, but was scared the entire time she was there. I was so grateful that Paige would have NONE of it! I was also glad that Lola has no fear at all- the peer pressure worked in my favor this time! Paige was awesome! She taught them about kicking and getting things off of the bottom of the pool and how to roll over and float if you get too tired swimming. I was thrilled at her progress, even with the tears!
By the end of the week, she was very excited for my parents to come to her last lesson. We came straight from picking them up from the airport. She didn't cry, but started to do this weird nervous laughter. It was hilarious. She was trying so hard to put on a brave face, but would just shake and giggle! Well, by the end of her last lesson, she jumped off of the diving board and swam to Paige. I was so thrilled. She was still very nervous, but she would do it and had the skills to be a little safer which made my Mommy heart relax a little.

Since then, Caroline was still a little nervous. Our trips to the pool consisted of a lot of begging and threatening to go home or cancel her birthday party. She was still just scared! I tried to keep reminding myself that she was just 3.

Well, then her birthday party came. Caroline has a few older friends that are great swimmers. She wanted so badly to keep up with them, that next thing we know, she jumping off like crazy! She didn't even want to come and eat- SO not her Mother's child! Thanks to friends like Kim and Chad and others, she was able to spend her entire night jumping and swimming! Her little eyes were so red by the end of the night (goggles don't work for her. They just make her eyelids pull back and she looks like Michael Jackson- OK maybe that joke is ill- timed.)All that to say, I could not be more proud of my little fish!