Little Fish!

So here's post number two that I've been working on. (Which I started working on forever ago, and then lost my SD card, but finally found it behind the couch!) We decided that since we're in this Texas heat, and there are two free swimming pools within a couple of miles of us, that this would be a good summer to work on teaching Emmaline to swim, and she has done really well! When we first started she would barely put just the front of her face in the water, and now she's a little too comfortable with the water! I really had no idea where to start in teaching her how to swim, so I started looking for guides on-line, and ended up finding a web-site that I really, really liked. We followed the steps, and swam pretty frequently over the summer, and now she'll dive to the bottom to retrieve toys(shallow end obviously), she can float on her front and back, she can doggy paddle under water, she can swim on her back, she can do the beginner freestyle, and she can jump in the pool. (Quite proudly:)) I'm not saying I would be comfortable throwing her in the deep end, but she's progressed really well. (That will be our next goal is learning how to tread water. They don't have that on the web-site, so I just kind of tried to teach her while we were at the Running Y and my Dad had Marta, and that wasn't as successful. :))

I've been wanting to get some video/pictures of Emmaline swimming, but we always go when Royce is at work and it's too much to try and manage both girls in the pool, so when we went to Oregon, my Dad watched Marta in the kiddie pool, and my mom got some video of Emmaline swimming. The only problem is that the pool sloped pretty steeply to where Emmaline couldn't touch, and I became the "rope" so I'm in all the videos. (The only thing worse than pictures in a swimsuit is video in a swimsuit. Oh well, just look at the kid. :)) So this first video is a beginning swimming on your back stroke called "pat the dog."

They also had lots of safety skill practices on the on-line training.

So proud jumping in the pool.

This one I just thought that Marta was funny.

Here's a picture that I stole from our friend's blog. We've been swimming with some friends at one of the neighborhood pool, and have had a lot of fun this summer. There are some really great families around student housing, and Emmaline has made some really great friends. I was sick on the last day that we were planning on meeting our friends at the pool, and Emmaline almost started crying, and said, "but it's the last day swimming with Ben!" But I assured her that we would have all year to play with Ben still. :)

This is the web-site that I used to help teach Emmaline how to swim. I really liked it, and it was super helpful!

http://www.uswim.com/