Finally - - A Breakthrough!

Thursday night swim lessons.....Alexa was initially dreading swimming tonight - when I called my mom to let her know I was on my way home from work, a sobbing Alexa picked up the phone and begged not to go to swim.  I've learned very quickly that she loves to make her own decisions and feel like she's in control (apple doesn't fall far from the tree), so I gave her two choices when I came home: 1) Go to swim lesson tonight and go swimming with me at home tomorrow night or 2) Skip swimming and we'd drain the pool in our backyard.  When given these two options, she quickly opted for the former.  Once she had made her decision, she didn't say another word about going, and she was extremely excited to see that Coach Anthony was back in the pool tonight.

Tonight we finally had a major breakthrough at swimming!  I knew it was going to be a good lesson, when Alexa went underwater without hesitation.  However, she had Coach Anthony and I laughing and shaking our heads at the maneuvers she was doing to make sure he did not let go of her.  At one point, Anthony was shaking his wrist to relieve it from the Alexa Death Grip.  Despite her fear, Alexa was smiling and laughing the entire lesson, and on her very last backfloat of the night, she finally let go of Coach Anthony and flipped to swim to the wall.  Anthony, Nick (who happened to be hanging out on the pool deck) and I were elated - - finally!  The guys were high-fiving her like she had just swum the English Channel, and I made a pointed effort to make sure she knew how proud I was.  I'm hoping this is beginning of  'real' swimming for her....fingers crossed!

Swimming with Coach Anthony - -
this is while she still had the death grip :)