Finally We Have a Swimmer!

Lauren has been in swim lessons since she was 18 months old. Well, until last summer, "lesson" is a stretch, as it really was just a parent/baby class over at the Blue Buoy Swim School, which is very close to our house. Until late last summer, Lauren would not even really put her face in the water at swim class, and forget about her moving off the steps in our own pool.

Last summer, at just over age 2, we moved her to a semi-private class and she began doing much more with the teacher (Miss Stacie). Still didn't like to wear goggles, still didn't care for going under, still couldn't swim independently, but she was clearly much more comfortable in the water. With 2 parents for whom the water is a passion, this was a huge relief.

Since classes at Blue Buoy are only 20 minutes (they really need to be at least 30 minutes, if you ask me), in June I decided to bite the bullet financially and have her do fully private sessions with Miss Stacie. While I didn't take her to the class, Nanny Kristen started coming back each week with amazing stories of Lauren swimming 5-6 feet at a stretch from Miss Stacie to the wall, and gladly submerging herself to touch the bottom of the baby pool. About a month ago, when our pool became warm enough to swim in, we eagerly awaited a demonstration of Lauren's newfound skills. And waited. And waited. Truth is, in our pool, Lauren still steadfastly refused to willingly get her face wet or come off the steps without full assistance. So I did what I had to do. I stopped those private lessons; in fact, I stopped sending her to Blue Buoy altogether. I figured that we needed to find someone to give Lauren lessons in our own pool because the whole point of lessons at such a young age was to make her safe at home.

Approximately 10 days after stopping the lessons, we were in the pool one evening (5:30-6:30 p.m. pool time before dinner for the whole family has been almost a daily occurrence for the past 3 weeks), when out of the blue, Lauren leaped off the spa bench, plunged her face into the water, and began whipping her little legs and minnowing her body several feet until she reached me. OMG. The triumphant look on her face (once she had a chance to pull the mass of hair out of her eyes) said it all: "See Mom, I could do this all along and was just waiting for the right time for ME to show you." Kind of how she has done everything in her 3 short years - on her own time, when she has been ready.

Since then, she has continued to progress by leaps and bounds: gladly jumping off the side of the pool and swimming 4-5 feet toward us; jumping in and then turning herself toward the steps and swimming to the steps; being launched by Norm into the air, then once hitting the water (doing way too much of a belly flop for my liking), turning herself around and swimming back to Norm. Now she will not stop. Seriously. We have to make her rest between efforts because the energy expended is so tremendous that she's panting and puffing for the better part of the hour. But she's deliriously happy while doing it, and we are so proud we want to burst. She now regularly referees Mom and Dad in freestyle races (with one lap we tie, or Norm barely touches me out - c'mon, with only a 17-yard pool, his added wingspan gives him a great advantage; with two laps, my flip turn leaves him in the dust every time).

She's not yet using her arms very much to propel herself, so we will continue to work on that as her new swim instructors (aka Mom and Dad) work with her regularly for at least another month or two until the weather turns. I plan to catch her current mad skills on video soon and will post. In the meantime, we have one of her recent flying air leaps to share: