Swimming!

Lily is swimming! I am, frankly, astounded. On Monday, Lily and Luke started swimming lessons at the community pool. Both were thoroughly traumatized at being required to put their faces in the water. Luke wants nothing more to do with swimming lessons, even when offered chocolate icecream as a reward--who can refuse chocolate icecream? Lily, however, is much more bribable. She has persevered with the lessons, although she still didn't like putting her face in the water. Yesterday I had a flash of inspiration: we went to Target and got a scuba set with a mask that covers her nose as well as eyes. She spent a lot of the afternoon in the bathtub practicing putting her head underwater and having a blast. Today she went to her swim class and happily participated, then went to the shallow kiddie pool, put on the mask, and--started swimming underwater! She does a sort of breast-stroke both face-up and face-down underwater. She hasn't tried out her new skills in the big pool yet, but for a child who has been terrified of water for the past four years this was a huge breakthrough!