Ellie's Swim Day

Ellie's swimming classes had a big exhibition about a week ago, and I was able to take a little time off work to come support Ellie and see her progress. Nathan, who goes to swim lessons with her every week, has been giving me upbeat reports, but I was more impressed to see it with my own eyes.

Ellie hated water as a baby and I had to get in the tub to give her a bath until she was about 18 months old. And when she started swimming lessons, she was very afraid of the water and would cling to mommy or daddy whenever we went swimming. Now look at her! I predict she'll be starting to swim by Christmas.

Ellie takes a deep breath in preparation for blowing bubbles underwater while her teacher holds her up

Ellie eyes the deep end...

And then pulls herself across the width of the deep end on two ropes. This teaches her to become familiar with not being able to touch the bottom of the pool and, as the rope sags in the middle of the pool and she has to work a bit to keep her head above water, gets her comfortable putting her face in the water and kicking her legs