Amelia Takes the Leap!

We just wrapped up four weeks of almost continous swim lessons.  The kids have both made great progress this summer in their skills.  It was also great to have a reason to get out of the house for a few minutes every day for the kids to have some physical activity in such hot weather conditions.  During the last week, another student in Amelia's swim class asked if she could go off the diving board and Amelia begged (not kidding!!) to tag along.  I was sure she wouldn't do it.....I'm still not sure she would have done it on her own without any help.  She sure was proud of herself though!  A few thoughts on this:

1.  You can't see it in this video, but there weren't any other kids in the pool at this time as it was inbetween swimming lessons.  Yet, there were at least 3 lifeguards on duty in addition to the swim instructor in the pool and the swim instructor on the diving board behind Amelia (Fun fact: 3 out of the 5 lifeguards/instructors are former students of mine).  Despite all of the supervision AND having given my permission, I was still extremely nervous to see my little girl standing on the end of the diving board at the deep end of the swimming pool a good 20-30 feet away from me.

2.  The swim instructor came back with both girls by the hand after they both jumped off the diving board.  She handed both girls off to their mothers (we were sitting right next to each other), and said "I never thought I would see the day when two four year old girls were brave enough to jump off the diving board.  This is an awesome day!"  Her jaw hit the pavement when I informed her Amelia is only 3.  She was assuming Amelia was the same age because she is a full head taller than the 4 year old in the class.

3.  William was positively green with envy.  He couldn't believe his younger sister got to do something before he did.  Before we left the pool, William insisted we find his swim instructor and demand to be allowed to jump off the diving board the following day.  He had to promise to listen for the entire swim lesson the next day (this has been a problem for us this year, unfortunately).