Claire's Swimming Update

Today's open-plunge session was 2 hours (because Mommy stipulated that it shouldn't be longer than that). We spent about a third of that time in the 9-foot Olympic racing pool.

Claire enjoyed finding new toys to play with including a bin full of yellow water-polo balls. As floats go, they're a little hard to keep under control and they get away from you very easily, but Claire stated that water-polo was going to be her sport of choice (though she insists on calling it water-soccer).

She was also pleased to find the stash of huluhoops (used in her swimming class). She even tried them out on land for the purpose for which they are designed. It's not quite the same as the WII Fit, but she progressed from 3 loops before it found itself around her toes to almost 10 loops. But she gave that up after a few minutes and took it into the water with her.

She instructed me on how to hold it (vertical, mostly under water) and proceeded to push off from the bank, swim through it, and come to a halt some distance from the bank and not an insignificant distance from me -- in 9-foot water with no float.

Be aware that she has never been taught to tread water. Her classes are conducted at the 3' 3" level where she can comfortably touch the bottom with only a bit of a tippy-toe stretch. I mentioned last time that she showed she could tread water -- once, for about one second -- but Michelle blew it off with a bit of amusement disbelieving that this short time frame could really be considered treading water.

So here she was, treading water, several feet from me. This made me acutely nervous -- a number of things she does make me acutely nervous -- but I held myself in check to see what she would do.

Still treading water, she turned to me, grinned, and commented on her swimming prowess (not her water treading prowess which was freaking me out). Then she giggled.

I decided that there was not too severe a crisis in the offing.