Water Off!

Elina has really come a long way with swimming.  At the beginning of the school year, she was afraid to have water in her face...now, she can actually take a breath by herself.  

See, in order for her to move up to the next level, she had to be able to take one independent breath.  Just last week I was telling B that I didn't think she'd ever get there.  When she's in the pool, she's constantly wiping the water off of her face.  I always ask her why she bothers doing that since she just has to get her face wet again anyway.  Well, I was pretty sure she wouldn't be able to take a breath on her own and I was sad that she had to stay at the same level for swim class.  

Then 'lo and behold, she starts taking a breath by herself in the pool!  Her coach and I were both in shock when we saw her do this!  She just magically got it last week.  Not only that, she's starting to look more comfortable in the water.  Instead of freaking out if she misses a stroke or if there's water in her face, she laughs about it now.  Plus, she actually started saying, "I love swimming!" and, "I want to get back into the water!"  I was floored!!  Who is this kid?!?  I'm just so excited for her!  

In this video, she's doing her "big arms" and then "turning the water off" by flipping onto her back to take a breath.  This video doesn't do her as much justice because I totally forgot the kids' goggles last week, so I'm partly to blame as to why she doesn't look as relaxed in the water.  But I thought she looked pretty good considering... 

I am so proud of Elina!  I'm just ecstatic that she's finally enjoying being in the water!

[Eli, on the other hand, has kinda sorta not improved.  Remember when I posted about him doing his own sit-dive?  Well, after doing sit-dives a thousand times, he decided that they're too scary to do now.  So...we're back to the beginning with that one.  I don't know WHAT happened.  All I know is that I get pretty frustrated when he refuses to do it on his own when we all know that he did it before.  I'm at the point where I'm just bribing him...and the sad thing is that it's NOT EVEN WORKING!!  I don't know what to do with this kid.  Any suggestions??  I need help, people....I'm about to "gently" nudge him into the pool myself.  Maybe I need to show him his sit-dive video footage over and over again so that he can believe that he can do it. Worth a try...]