We have a swimmer!

Meredith has been "swimming" since she was about 10 months old - we started Mommy and me swim lessons the summer before she was 1 - but she has never really been a fan. She liked the water, but try to get her to do anything UNDER the water and she was out! Last summer we could hardly even get her to go into the big pool all summer, although she had a blast in the little inflatable pools. We still took mommy and me lessons last summer but it was pretty disasterous and we even stopped going before the season ended.

This year, I decided she would probably do better without me and signed her up for a two week class with Miss Suzy. I was really encouraged the few weeks before swimming lessons as we tried out Gigi's pool because she was loving being in the water again! Of course, she loved being in it with a swim ring, but I felt we had already made progress. Then swimming lessons started. She was excited. I dropped her off and she didn't even flinch that I was leaving her in a stranger's backyard, so Jillian and I went to the park without worry while we waited on her.

When we returned, I found a very sullen Meredith in the lounge chair. She wouldn't talk to me or smile. A friend of Meredith's was in her class and he said, "She is mad because she just screamed the whole time." Oh. That is when Miss Suzy laid it out for me - she wasn't going to be able to teach her or the other kids anything if Meredith just screamed, so she told us we could come back on Day 2 and hope that it turned out better - but she even sent me back home with the money I paid "in case." That was tough.

I went home and obsessed - I called another swim teacher to see if she could switch teachers. I got her advice. I called Miss Suzy and got her advice. Then we went to Gigi's house. Gigi made Meredith a swim chart with stickers and I took a no-nonsense approach making her go underwater more times than I could count. Then I prayed and prayed. And I had Meredith pray and pray. Day 2, I dropped off a crying little girl, but when I went nervously back to pick her up - there she was with a sucker (the true sign she did great). Turns out, the tears turned off right after I left! We had a few more rough days when she didn't want to do as much jumping off the side as Miss Suzie would have liked, but we went to Gigi's practically every day to keep practicing. I was amazed by her progress and confidence growth!

The last day, we were invited in to watch the end of her lessons and it was so fun to watch all of the kids - especially Meredith, who had turned from a screamer into a swimmer!

Meredith and her friend Marc ready to show us some jumps into the water
"You watchin, Mama?"

Ok, terrible picture - but look at my little girl (yes, the one that screamed so much she almost got kicked out of lessons) jumping off the diving board!!

And then she swam all the way to the side underwater to Miss Suzy
So comfortable in her surroundings, she had time to pose before jumping in for more!
There she goes!
Doing her airplane float
I am so proud of her for pushing through her fear and working so hard! It looks like she is a little proud too!