Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Summer Swimming

The summer is coming to an end with school starting in less than 2 weeks.  Our neighborhood pool will remain open for a few weeks after that, closing sometime in mid September.  I plan to take full advantage of the remaining days of summer at the pool.

This was the first summer that I was actually able to let both kids go into the pool with me standing at the side.  Michael's swimming lessons of the past few summers are finally paying off.  He was able to swim this year without any assistance, although he still likes to swim to Todd and I.  He even was able to use a kickboard the right way and swim from one end of the pool to the other.  Michael has always been timid when it comes to the water.  He finally embraced jumping in to the water to make big splashes!

One day early in the summer, Katie took a swimming ring, stepped into it and swam off into the pool.  This was pretty much how she spent her entire summer.  She would easily swim from one end of the pool to the other.  I can't wait until she can get lessons when she is 4 because she already uses her arms to paddle and legs to kick.

Apparently Katie felt so safe in the ring that she thought she did not need it.  When we were getting ready to leave the pool one day, she took the ring off, walked to the side of the pool and jumped in.  She went under the water and had to be rescued by the lifeguard.  Talk about a scary moment for both me and Katie!  The good news is that this incident left a lasting impression and she never went near the water again alone or without her ring.  Katie still talks about when she went in the water without her floaty and sank to the bottom and says how it was scary.

Overall, there has been a lot of fun time at the pool!

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