We enrolled Chloe in the MILO swimming clinic at a nearby condo here in QC, after she told us a story about how she took off her vest during a swimming party because "all the other girls weren't wearing on." (See how early peer pressure sets in!) After 1 week, she was still a bit nervous in the water, even with her Coach (who's terrific by the way). So one by one, Mommy took out potential issues:
1) She wouldn't stay in the water. I asked Coach if I could swim with her. He said it would be a good idea. I thought it would help her practice (specifically when it's not Chloe's turn with Coach). Plus, she was always getting out of the pool when it wasn't her turn! When she'd be with me, we would play alot, I'd push her down to touch the floor with her toes and she'd "fly" back up on her own.
2) Water was cold. Not that I could solve that really, but Coach said to put baby oil all over her body before she came to the pool as that would help. Secondly I bought her a swimsuit that was a full t-shirt and a panty bottom (which was much better than the bikini she was wearing) to help her deal with the cold water.
3) She couldn't see the depth of the pool. I convinced Louie that we needed to "invest" in some decent goggles (Chloe had gotten goggles as gifts, but the water kept coming in). So off to the land of SPEEDO we went. I tell you, once she had them on she could see EVERYTHING and was alot more confident. We had a great game where we'd both go underwater and just say "hi". Another really cool game was where I'd pretend to be drowning and yell "Help me, help me" and she'd just swim over to "save" me.
So in two and a half weeks, we went from this...
to this...
to this... (drumroll please!)
Success!!!