Fishy-Fishy Cross My Ocean

I am so proud today!! Well I can find a reason everyday to be proud of my girls. Even in the deepest depths of frustration with a three year olds raging independence and sometimes insolence I can find one thing, one tiny thing that the girls did each day that made me proud. But today was huge, overwhelming, spilling over with emotion pride. Yeah, yeah, you’ve read this post before. In fact I am sure I have spouted off about my pride at Grace’s swimming on at least three other occasions if not a million times before and each time was, in my eyes a huge accomplishment and each time was just as sweet as the next.
I, out of necessity, stopped the girls swim lessons in October. In the months that are the best for lessons, the months when it’s cold and we are not at or in the pool at least every other day my girls had a break. After making huge strides in the late summer and early fall I halted their progress and gave them 5 months to regress.

Oh yes, I push my kids. When it comes to swimming, I undoubtedly and unapologetically push my kids. I have huge expectations and those expectations have nothing to do with athletic ability or want or need to have a competitive swimmer for a child. My expectations come from a colossal respect for water and the inexhaustible danger it posses. That and teaching swimming for years to 6 and 7 year olds who were terrified of the water and knowing that fear is a learned behavior.

Each time I have raved about the girls, Grace in particular, it has been because a barrier has been broken. Learning to go under water and simply float, comfortable, happily even. Or when she learned to jump in and kick a few feet to where Mary was standing. Last fall she even began to figure out how to take a breath and continue on. This is a huge hurdle to cross, but once she makes it… Once she’s on the other side of that one… She’ll be a real swimmer.

Lily is as always fearless. I am proud of her willingness to dive right in, but there is no skill in it and a small amount of fear is crucial when it comes to water. There is a reason they say “never turn your back on the ocean”. Her complete lack of fear scares me sometimes. I adore that she will just do whatever and marvel at her own amazement with each new discovery of cause and effect. Such as the day she discovered; if I step off this ledge and simply do nothing I am simply suspended here and its cool! Or her latest; if I kick my feet I can return to the surface. I am proud of her just because I’m her mom. I am proud of her because she is so even though bravery is not a lack of fear but action in the face of fear. I’m still proud!

Today, I am told, Grace tried on several occasions to take a breath. She still has not quite figured out how to do so and continue on but she has figured out how to roll over on her back and float when she is out of breath. I so wish I’d seen it! I was busy trying to get out of a conversation with another mother and missed the entire lesson. But I am told that each time Grace swam from the step to the island (today it was placed roughly 10 feet away) she made it almost all the way, more than ¾ I am told and then had to roll over and float. I was so happy to hear that but sad to have missed it!

For Lily’s class the island is not really used. I wanted Mary to really work on Lily’s swimming back and forth between the two of us, so she pushed the island away towards the edge of the pool. Now it’s roughly 6 feet from the side, not far at all. The next thing I know Mary’s nudging me and saying “Shhh… Look.” There was Grace swimming back and forth, back and forth and back and forth from island to wall, wall to island. I stood awe struck. She looked determined and she was doing a great job! Granted it was a distance she would cover easily without taking a breath. Heck I am 5’2 and Grace is hip high on me. It’s not much more than two of her body lengths, but the repetitions, the practice the lack of any adult within arms reach as a safety net… I could have cried I was so happy! Of course now Lily has seen Grace and it’s all ‘Monkey see, Monkey do’ in my house. So Mary told me to watch this… and put the island on an angle forcing the far corner to about 8 feet from the wall and the near corner about two feet from the steps. Lily and Grace went back and forth together. Grace swimming from the far side and Lily from the near.

That was our last group lesson and we couldn’t have ended on a higher note. Now the girls begin their private lessons and I am anxious to see the progress they make with that amount of focused attention! Yes I push my kids when it comes to swimming. Yes I stop when they fall in the pool and tell others to “wait, let’s see what she does.” Before swooping in and rescuing them. Yes I hear "I can’t” or “I don’t want to” and I dig my heels in and force the issue. But I can now feel confident this summer that I can take them to the pool alone we can enjoy the water. What’s more important, I will want to take them to the pool because it won’t be a stressful challenge juggling two kids who can’t swim.

So let the pool party begin! Anyone up for a game of Fishy-Fishy Cross My Ocean?