Swimming

Emmy seems to really enjoy water, though when we took her to the beach at 8 months, she also seemed utterly terrified of the ocean.  She loved the sand, but she wasn't fond of the ocean.  She didn't want me to hold her in the waves, and she certainly didn't want to let the water wash over her at the edge. 

So, remembering that, we were concerned that she would fear the ocean again when we go to the beach in August this year.  Well... are concerned, would probably be more correct, I suppose.

So, we've been playing in the wading pool, practicing putting our faces in the water, and trying to blow bubbles.  So far, we've not had a lot of success with that.  She'll drop her face really really close to the water, but not really in.  And the bubble blowing is not happening at all.  She just blows at the surface of the water, the same way she blows to cool off hot food.

But we also wanted to get some experience in a real pool, with water that would be over her head.  Tom and I are having some fundamental disagreements about floatation devices, but I finally agreed to a speedo swim vest (NOT FOR USE IN BOATS, says the label). 

Vandy offers swim lessons for toddlers, but they are... inconveniently scheduled (weekdays? weeknights?!? Come on, guys.)  But, of course, Grandma and Grandpa Smith have a community pool in their subdivision, so this weekend, we headed down and gave it a try.

Emmy loved the pool!  She desperately wanted to try it by herself... not to mention the deep end.  "Lea' me 'lone, mama!"  She called out as I held her in my arms.  We compromised with me holding on to her swimsuit as she flopped and paddled around the shallow end.  Whenever she got a couple mouthfuls of water, I would pick her up and put her back on my hip and let her breathe for a moment.  She's absolutely fearless. 

She was jumping off the side of the pool into Tom's arms, which was clearly resulting in full submersion head dunking, and she kept climbing out of the pool and going right back to jump in again.  Fearless.

When she saw some older kids jump off the diving board into the deep end, she decided she wanted to do that too.  But, alas, that dream could not be achieved on this trip.  She was also obsessed with getting to the "other side" (the other side of the blue rope that separates the shallow and deep ends of the pool) but refused to hold onto a parent when she got to go on the other side of the rope, so that foray didn't last long.

We're definitely looking forward to another trip to the big pool.