The Evolution of a Swimmer

My five-year-old loves the swimming pool. For the past several months, what she loves the most is going into the deeper water and letting me pull her around. Or standing on the concrete "island" in the middle of the pool and jumping to me (actually, it is more like on me, since I can't be more than six inches away from her in order for her to actually go through with it.)

We are having a pretty successful year, however. She will now go under the water and get her entire head wet. She can blow bubbles out of her nose. I even got her to stay under water without holding her nose for 4 seconds, today. She vehemently drew the line at 5.

The other day, a friend of mine and I took the kids swimming. Our pool is "zero entrance," so we were sitting in the shallow end trying to soak up some sun on our pasty-white skin. My daughter was dinking around in the four inch deep water, and calls out, "Mommy, Mommy, look at me; I'm swimming!"

I glance over at her, and she is vigorously wiggling her body and one arm in the water while the other hand is firmly planted on the bottom of the pool. She raises her head, triumphantly.

"That's great!" I say. "Now you need to take your hand off of the bottom."

She gives me that look--the one that says How on Earth did you know I was holding on to the bottom?!--maybe it was that I could see all the way to the bottom of that crystal clear water that was only FOUR INCHES DEEP. "I don't think I can," she laments.

Finally, I convince her to try. She is successful. Well, she is as successful as you can be trying to keep your body afloat in less than a foot of water. The rest of the time at the pool is spent with her practicing her new found skill.

Fast forward to this afternoon. Hubby and I take the kids swimming. It was incredibly hot outside, and a great day to be at the pool. Five-year-old proceeds to show her dad her wonderful swimming ability. He is properly amazed and then proceeds to convince her to try that same skill in 2 1/2 feet of water. How is it that dads have that ability? It would've taken me the rest of the summer to get her to do that. She quickly progressed to 3 feet.

Now, she doesn't want me to touch her in the water. She wants to "swim" everywhere. The problem is, she can float fine, but she can't seem to get her arms and legs to actually move her in the water. She just kicks and paddles faithfully, splashing up a storm, and then comes up for air, all the while maybe moving 3 inches. But lest I sound negative, we are so grateful for those 3 inches, and for her sense of accomplishment. Maybe next time, she will work on distance.

And maybe my dreamed of days of taking kids to the pool, relaxing in a lounge chair, and reading a good book are not so far off!