Little Fish!

The girls have LOVED the pool this summer and Emmie has steadily improved all summer. Ellie has kind of held steady and given me many heart attacks with her lack of fear of the water!
I've been so proud of all that Emmie has accomplished. She has built up the endurance to swim the length of the pool (25meters) without stopping (although if she can touch the bottom she will put her foot down every time!). After many, many days of standing on the block she finally worked up the courage to jump off and now she will jump off and swim to the side. She taught herself to do a front flip. She taught herself to float on her back. She is so proud (and so are we) of all that she has learned and she has so much confidence in the water!
Ellie has loved playing in the pool but hasn't been interested in trying anything new. I couldn't even get her to jump off of the side. Ellie however has always been a child that does things in her own time but does them well when she decides to do them. So yesterday I got her to jump off the side in the deep end and she stood up on the block but wouldn't jump off. Today we went to the zoo and she was tall enough to ride the pony and she went around and told everyone at the zoo that she was "finally old enough to ride the pony". The whole riding the pony thing seemed to have flipped some switch in her brain that she could do ANYTHING. So we went to the pool tonight and since Gran was with us I told Ellie that perhaps Gran could hold her hand on the block and I would catch her when she jumped. She looked at us and said "No! I'm brave!" and hoped right on the block and jumped off. She told everyone at the pool that she was brave. I agreed.
I got my mom to take some videos of the girls swimming so we could have a comparison from the beginning of the summer. Here is the link to their swim lesson video http://fromthecornerofmycouch.blogspot.com/2014/05/swim-lessons.html and here is today!





(Not her best flip but I think it's pretty impressive for a 4 year old!)











Of course we can't leave out Ruthie when discussing the pool. I have NEVER seen a baby that loved the pool as much as she does. She loves to "swim", she loves to splash, especially if the big girls are splashing, she loves when the older kids are splashing around and the water splashes on her, and she is learning to "jump" in the pool (I stand her on the side and she has started bending her knees in a jumping motion). Ruthie can't wait to be able to swim like her sisters!