This was Ellie's first year to take swimming lessons. By the end of last summer, Ellie was swimming like a fish and jumping off the diving board like a champ. But somewhere over the course of a year, she regressed a little, and this summer she has been more timid in the pool, not wanting to take off her floaties in the water, and definitely not wanting much to do with the diving board. She is gaining more confidence though, and overall her first lessons were successful. I took this photo the first day, right as her first lesson was about to begin. I think she looks so beautiful:
"Teacher, can I wear my floaties during swimming lessons?" And yes...she actually asked that.
Slowly rediscovering her bravery from last summer:
After several days of coercing, she finally decided that if she had a flotation device on, she would be willing to jump off the big diving board just once. But I don't know that I'd exactly call it 'jumping'...it was really more like a 'forced dropping in' by the teacher:
After two weeks of lessons, the last day was her favorite. They got to play with toys in the wading pool the entire time:
My sweet little swimmer in progress:
