Swimming Machine

Hannah has been taking swimming lessons this last week and what a great time she is having. She honestly loves the water (always has) and loves swimming now too. Let me chronicle the stages of learning to swim.

Day 1 - Hannah cried for 1/2 of the lesson. This school has a philosophy of immersion until cooperative. It was tough for both mom and Hannah but after many "I'm tired", "I don't want to go under the water", and "I don't want to learn how to swim", she stopped crying and basically gave in or should I say "gave up the fight".

Day 2 - Hannah didn't want to go to swim lessons, but I bribed her with ice cream with Daddy after the lesson. (It was free ice cream scoop at Ben & Jerry's). Oh, and Panda had to come with us and he watched the lesson by the edge of the pool. It took awhile for her to let go of him, but she did. So, she went in and cried for a couple of minutes and then enjoyed the rest of the lesson and started to get into it. After the lesson the first thing she said is "Where is the ice cream?"

Day 3 - She runs up to her teacher Andrew and jumps right into his arms. She is all smiles and does everything he says. Every time she would swim to him with her flippers on, her little bottom would stick up through the water. It was so cute to just see this little bottom bobbing in the water.

Day 4 - Hannah learns to float on her back, starts to learn to roll over and jumps off the diving board to her instructor. Again, all smiles and loving every minute of it.

Day 5 - Hannah is a swimming star... not a care in the world while she is learning to swim. Each day this week when the lesson ends, she has to walk to the side of the pool where the statues of Snow White and the 7 dwarfs live and say goodbye to Grumpy ... each and every day.

We still have 5 more lessons so I will have a final wrap-up in a few weeks.