swim lessons

This is Grace last Monday, it was her first day of swim lessons...
... the goggles only lasted about 10 minutes, they weren't staying put, so the teacher had her go without!

Honestly, my expectations were low. The entire week before, she was totally anxious and reminded me hourly that she did not want to swim without floaties, nor did she want to go underwater. I expected a holy tantrum, one that would surely convince anyone in ear shot that my poor baby was genuinely petrified of the water and that putting her through swim lessons was just plain cruel. I even signed her up last summer and canceled at the last minute because I was too nervous about putting her through the torture. This year, I decided that she was old enough to suck it up and do it... not that I thought she really would. I signed her up for private lessons, 30 minutes a day for 5 days.
Well guess what... she totally rocked swim school! Day 1, she held her breath and put her face in the water to get plastic rings off of the steps. Day 5, she was jumping off the side of the pool by herself and swimming underwater clear to the other side of the pool; and I'm talking long end to long end!
Mrs.Lauren, her swim teacher, had two suggestions at the end of the week of things Grace needed to work on...
1) forgetting to use her arms: she often forgets to use "big arms," she's still going, just not as fast as she could
2) taking breaths: she was holding her breath the entire length of the pool. Mrs. Lauren got her to pick her head up while she was swimming, but she was just putting it back under without taking a breath. Mrs. Lauren told me that Grace holds her breath longer than any other 3 year old she's seen!

I am so very proud of you Grace! You conquered your fears and did awesome! She loves to swim without floaties now and is even a bit overconfident, I'm afraid.

I would love to show you all a video of my little Micheal Phelps, and we tried, but due to used videos and dead batteries, it didn't happen. We'll get it by the end of summer!