pool time

One of the biggest joys for me this week is watching my children enjoy the pool.  Despite mornings in class and some other responsibilities, Matt is able to spend a good chunk of time with the family, which means we head to the pool every afternoon! 

Neither of my girls was quick to love the water.  Some children seem to naturally jump in and figure out the swimming thing pretty quickly.  My girls did not.  It added a lot of stress to my pool trips knowing that I had five non-swimmers! 

In their defense, we've never spent much time anywhere that they got consistent access to a swimming pool.  It seemed our pool times were few and far between, which makes it hard to make good progress. 

But this week we've turned a major corner.  Both of them are eager to get their swimming skills up to par.  Julianna is not the same little girl she was just one week ago - she went from hesitant to (mostly) confident, swimming and taking breaths and doing hand stands and somersaults in the water.  The swimming/breathing isn't too pretty, and her stroke needs (ahem) a good deal of work, but she is doing it! 

Lydia is like a baby minnow.  Her form is scrappy, but she gets where she wants to go (though her ability to tread water is lacking, so she's far from "safe" to swim alone in deep water). 

I have dreams of getting the girls (and Isaac) into some swim lessons so they can freestyle the length of the pool, but in the mean time I'll celebrate that we are becoming water-safe, one child at a time!