Swimming

Today I took Colby to the indoor pool to practice his swimming skills. One thing we are working on is jumping to me from the side without holding my hands the whole time. He only likes to jump if he's holding my hands first, so we've been practicing at home off the bed. I had high expectations when we got to the pool, but he was still scared to jump without holding my hands.

I wasn't going to give up! I know I cannot force him to do anything, so I suggested we go jump off the side in the baby pool. We started in one foot of water, and he jumped to me without holding my hands. (that is not a soft landing) Slowly....very slowly, we made our way around the edge of the pool, getting deeper and deeper. One hour later, Colby was jumping off the side to me, no hands, in the deep end. He even told me to get further away so he could jump further! Towards the end, I was letting his head go under a little, and he went completely under about 5 times. He's working on holding his breath and not drinking or snorting the water, and he was very proud of himself. I am so happy he is making progress!!

Afterwards, when we got out of the water, we were both freezing from staying in the water so long. Normally, we are warm before we got to the locker room (which they keep at a very cold temperature), so I knew it would be an unpleasant experience. When we walked in, we were both so cold it was torturous. Colby asked me to get him dressed first, and we were both shaking as I was getting his clothes out. In a desperate and worried voice he said "I'm going to be cold forever and ever!" I've been laughing about that all day- I felt the same way and I think Colby was truly worried he would never be warm again.

After we both got dressed and warm, he asked if he could have a "prize" for his accomplishments, so I told him we'd go by McDonalds for a happy meal and a milkshake. He could not contain his excitement, and screamed to everyone in the locker room "I'M GETTING A PRIZE!! I'M GETTING A PRIZE!!!!"

Life with a 3 year old is certainly never dull.