Our Little Fish and Swimming Lessons

Natalie absolutely loves the water and seems to be a natural born fish. Of course, Ryan worked with her a good bit last summer at the pool so that may have something to do with it. I can still remember when she first squealed with glee about being dunked under the water. Naturally, we decided to enroll her in her first official swim class this summer. Natalie wants TOTAL independence in the water, this is not an exaggeration. She squirms when you hold her and tries her hardest to kick and move and swim on her own. One of the other Moms that we met in swim lessons told me on the last day that she had nicknamed Natalie "the jellyfish". I am totally serious!

Natalie has been in the "Tiny Tots" swimming class for the past two weeks at Auburn University. I have been taking her some and so has Ryan. It is a parent & toddler type class so we're in the water with her. The skills she learned are "airplane arms" (arms straight out to the sides) and "torpedo arms" (arms out in front with hands clasped together) and floating on her back with assistance. The other skills (that she could already do) are blowing bubbles and kicking. These are the two things she is VERY good at! During the last few classes, her teacher Megan encouraged her to put her head under the water on her own. On the last day, Natalie suddenly started doing it with a little coaxing from me! She would hold onto the edge of the pool and then lower her head under the water and blow bubbles at the same time. I was SO impressed and proud!

Sadly, I have no pictures from our swim lessons since I was always in the water with her but I have something better! Here is video of Natalie's newest skill! She put her head under the water and blew bubbles at least 20 times or more today while at the pool.