Swimming Kate

Kate has done such a fabulous job with her swim lessons since she began! It's amazing to see the difference in just a week. She began working more on rolling over and swimming on her back yesterday, and she finally worked up the courage to jump off the side of the pool and swim (she expected to be caught before).  Then she swam across the deep end of the pool a few times while the other kids jumped off the diving board. She was ready yesterday for that, and even this morning when she woke up she was telling me how she didn't want to jump off the diving board today.

She had a great class today - she swam across the pool on her back by herself several times and didn't cry once. She finally relaxed more and trusted that she could do it, and I think she will only get better from here. We just have to keep working with her so she doesn't forget what she has learned.

Then Cheryl had all the kids go to the diving board at the end of class and I got nervous - I fully expected the tears to come. This was it - she was expected to jump off the diving board today.  When it was her turn she inched ever so carefully out to the end of the board, as if she was walking a tight rope...and she stood there for what felt like 5 minutes but was only about 20 seconds before she finally worked up the courage to jump! All of the other kids in her class were cheering her on and yelling "Go Kate!", which made me want to hug every one of them, even if they were dripping wet.

She jumped three times! The first time took her several seconds to work up the courage to do it, but by the third jump she went right off. I'm so proud of her!