Anna Kate, Emily, Ava and Noelle had a blast swimming at their first cheer function!  Although it was wild and crazy and hard to find our squad, we had a blast meeting some new friends and playing in the water.

 

Our neighbor, Lesleigh, was there with her 5th grade squad and the girls were SO excited to see her!

 

Anna Kate and Lesleigh hung out most of the night.  Lesleigh is such a teacher at heart, and Anna Kate has this deathly fear of water, so Lesleigh was determined to help our little buddy out.  Both of them are strong-willed, so I enjoyed giving them some freedom to work together.  In the end, Anna Kate made progress, but won this battle… but everyone we swim with is going to have to help us help Anna Kate feel safe and happy in the water!  I don’t know what we’re going to do with our sweetie pie!  And that’s just the thing, she’s so sweet that we don’t want to terrify her. She has these puppy dog eyes that beg to get out of the water (even if she is being held by someone; she will grab them around the neck and not let go), and it’s just a mess.  Daddy’s going to have a hard time saying no to those eyes when she’s a teenager!

Noelle jumped off the big diving board in 12 foot deep water!  This was a big step for her swimming confidence this summer!  She’s doing great!

Ava is a rock star in the water!  She has a pool in her back yard, so she gets lots of awesome practice.  It was at her house one Monday afternoon, that the girls swam for several hours, and Noelle came home a swimmer.  I’ll never forget the next time Noelle and I swam together was at the Jenkins, and she was comfortably doing the back stroke across the pool. 

Good friends are the best teachers and motivators!

   

Anna Kate always enjoys water as long as she can touch the bottom.  Stairs are her home, so much so, that last summer, we nicknamed her “Stair Girl.”  It’s not that she would not get in the pool; she was simply always on the stairs.  And she loved it!  Every time I turned around last year, she was always happily playing (all day even) on the stairs.  She’s not getting in the pool, and she’s not getting out.  We’re going to figure it out in its time.  She’s a smart girl, so she will learn to swim when she is ready.  As we were leaving, I told Ava she looked like a nun, and she looked at me so funny and said, “What is a nun?”  I told her I would send a picture to show her so that she could see what I was talking about.  I sent these to her mom last week.  I think I was right on, lol!