Abigail put on the floaties mid-summer and made her debut swimming alone. She did not love it at first, but has begged to go to the pool since. Elizabeth does quite well and picked up where we left off last summer so she can swim with puddle jumper independently. David has made the largest change. We only had two puddle jumpers, and I was loth to buy another since David was almost outgrown his. Upon discovering that he can now touch bottom in the shallow end and knowing his cautious nature, we decided it was time to go without floaties and learn to swim. Michael taught him to hold his breath under water. This was the greatest challenge since this cautious little boy originally did not even want to put his head under water. Once he got the hang of that, we taught him to swim without floaties. He is not competent enough yet to leave unattended or out of arm's reach. He has a hard time staying on the surface if he is not swimming and cannot touch bottom. But he can swim the width of the pool now underwater with a few breaks in between. Maybe next year...
