Swimming

We spent most of July sending Gabriela to swimming lessons, daily. But it was just across the street and so it was easy to get to and an upstairs' neighbors' daughter was also participating, so she had a friend to play with and watch as the other girl is a bit braver than Gabriela. The entire 4 weeks she refused to put her face in the water. She would lay on her back, blow bubbles and swim around on those noodles (she's on the orange one in the pic), but not get her face wet. We also discovered at the end of the summer that we can go swimming on campus if a student is present with us. So we have gone a handful of times to try to do some of our own exercise, as well as keep Gabriela in the water. Well, finally, at the end of a family lesson on Tues, Aug 14, I was able to convincer her to put her nose underwater by holding it shut, then a couple times we went under without because she learned how to hold her breath properly and not allow the water up her nose. Then she swam about three feet to the edge three times without me holding on to her!!! She swam!!!!!! We celebrated a lot that night because it's a big deal. Gabriela is the type that is perfectly capable, but she does not always want to think she is. Now, I do not mind that she is not a huge risk taker (she'll learn to take appropriate risks in time), but we have to push her a little bit for her to learn new things. Unfortunately, we have not gone swimming since her success... so we need to do that sometime in our crazy hectic schedule.