Learning to Swim

On Saturday, I took the girls to the pool.  It was finally warm enough to get in.  I took Alaina's goggles, hoping I could get her to finally put her face in the water.  She will do it in the tub but something about the pool scares her.

 

She wouldn't do it.  She was scared.  I totally understood the fear.  Fear can cause you to miss out on a lot of things.  It grows and grows if you are not careful.  I tried to explain to her that I understood.  That I had let that get in my way for a long time.  But at 40, I learned to swim and actually liked it.  But that all I had to do was decide I could do it.  I told her that she had to decide that too.  And immediately, she said, "OK.  I'm going to do it!"  Then she went to the kiddy pool, put on her goggles, and swam around.  I was SHOCKED!!  So for the next 30 minutes, I threw the rings in and she would do this.

I was so proud!!  So then I tried to get her in the big pool.  She was like, "I don't think so!"  Something about it's size was overwhelming to her.  So I told her again, "You can do it.  You just have to decide that you can do it."  And she said, "Alright.  Let's try it."

 

And immediately, she could do this!

I'm not sure we ever taught her to do kick her legs and do her arms.  This seemed instinctual.  I was amazed.  She did this for over an hour and couldn't get enough.

 

That night I went to Target and got her goggles that will cover her nose so she won't have to hold it.  I can't wait to see how fast she is with both hands.

 

Later that night, I was telling her how proud I was of her, that she didn't let fear stop her.  I asked her what made her decide to do it?  She said, "I just wanted to make you happy."  I told her she definitely did that!

 

 

Playing in the kiddy pool.  Now sure what they were doing to Caitlin but she didn't seem to mind.