Little Mermaids

My efforts to make our girls little fishies have been fruitful.  We've been spending lots of time in the pool and at the beach.  Apple surprised me because she was terrified of the water.  She was the one who would always make a beeline to any body of water she could see and would jump in if we didn't catch her.  Suddenly she didn't want anything to do with it.  We are making great progress however.  The first couple of times, we just held her and she was very panicky.  Then we got her a little innertube, but it was a little unstable and she would still cling to us.  Next we tried water wings with the innertube.  It took her about 30 minutes to realize that she wouldn't sink if she didn't have a death grip on us.  Suddenly, she wanted us nowhere near her.  She yelled, "Kick, kick, kick . . . kick, kick, kick . . . kick, kick kick!" and took off.  This last time, she would only let us put on the water wings and screamed bloody murder if we came near her with the innertube.  It made me nervous because she wasn't up as high out of the water as before, but she insisted.  After she got comfortable, she wouldn't let us touch her and just paddled around the deep end for an hour.  She still won't go play in the ocean, but it is so cold, I don't blame her for wanting to play in the sand.

Strawberry has been very determined to be a swimmer.  I'm going to get her into real lessons this summer, but she'd been around water before and she thought she had it figured out.  But the girl sinks like a rock.  The first couple of days, she would choke and gag everytime her face got near the water.  She would try to take a breath as soon as her eyes came out and would inhale too much water.  She didn't want to give up though and we worked out timing and holding breath.  The water wings were great for her too because she was getting very frustrated and those babies can keep you up beautifully.  She is getting much more comfortable and loves to show us how long she can stay under the water.  She tells me that as soon as she gets lessons, she is going to teach me how to swim.  :)