Our Fishies

It's no secret that our kids LOVE the water! They would go to the pool everyday if I took them.

During July Scott was on night float, which meant he slept during the day and he'd leave for work around 4 pm.  Evenings are the hardest time of day for us as it is, but add that that's the time when Dad is leaving instead of coming home and we're in trouble.  To ease the pain of saying bye, when he would leave, we'd head to a nice outdoor pool nearby and swim for a few hours.  It made bedtime glorious, because they were so worn out that they'd go right to sleep when we got home.

With going every single day, the kids got quite good.  Bennett became completely independent in his life jacket and loved jumping from the side of the pool.  He also liked to lay on his back.  Addie is now a completely independent swimmer!  No floaties, life jacket or mom for her!  I definitely stay pretty close to her, since she is 3, but she is good.  At the pools we go to there is a swim test that you have to pass and once you do you get a coveted green wristband.  Addie decided one day that she wanted to do it.  I didn't think she could do 25 yd on her tummy without grabbing onto the edge of the pool, but who am I to stop her from being ambitious, so I let her try!

I couldn't believe the confidence she had!  She hopped right in and took off.  Only problem was that she was doing backstroke.  I forgot to tell her she had to stay on her tummy.  She went halfway before I could stop her.  I was so worried that she would be too tired to do it again on her tummy!  She proved me completely wrong.  She didn't panic once.  She went nice and steady the whole way, never reaching for the edge.  To say I was so proud is a complete understatement!  It made my swimming heart proud!  She earned her green wrist band.

Proudly showing off her new wristband!

The swim test at the outdoor pool is an olympic sized pool, 50 m.  A few weeks after the first swim test, we were at this pool with Scott and Addie said that she wanted to pass this swim test. I'm ashamed to say that, again, I didn't think she could do it, but I definitely wanted to let her try.  She proved us wrong and rocked the 50 m test.  It was fun that Scott was there to see her. I don't have any pics or videos from that day, but trust me, she was awesome:)

These videos are from a few weeks before she passed the swim test.  She has gotten a lot better.  It's really hard for me to video it because I'm always solo at the pool.  Someday we'll get good videos of her skills.  We are so proud of how hard she works.  

When she was younger, she was TERRIFIED of the water and I decided that no child of ours would be afraid of the water, so I would take her swimming almost every day during swim season.  It's been fun to see her as time has gone on and she has developed a real love for the sport.  I sometimes wonder if I'm going to regret this because I don't know that I'd make a good swim mom.  I saw my mom spend countless hours at pools for us growing up.  I don't know if I'm ready for that.  I guess it's too late for that now:) We'll see if Addie wants to keep swimming when she gets big.  For now her ultimate dream is to be on the swim team and that sounds good to us!