At the request of her instructor, Bella went to her first swim competition last weekend. (She thought it might give her some motivation to work harder at lessons…) It was super mellow – most of the kids are ages 4-7 – they swim in their regular suits. They have the choice to dive or start from in the pool (we chose in the pool, since she hasn’t learned diving yet…) She raced the 25 meter freestyle – and her instructor even swam ahead in the lane to cheer her on.

I was pretty nervous about this. She is a great little swimmer especially for her age – but she gets nervous sometimes in weird situations in the water. I was crossing my fingers and just hoping she would make it the whole length of the pool without panicking or going to the side. She didn’t just make it – SHE WON FIRST PLACE!! Jeremy and I were so proud of her for just making it – and she was so proud of herself for winning the race. She has been showing off her BLUE ribbon to everyone. At the end of the meet – they throw a bunch of coins in the pool, and the kids can dive for them. She loved that!

I would definitely say this tactic worked! She really listened during her swim lessons this week – and even tried to dive off the big block (although she was only supposed to jump.. it resulted in a belly flop that she swears didn’t hurt…) The instructor then tried to teach her diving from the side – which she did pretty good at! She is so brave! (I was cringing the whole time thinking about how hard that is to learn at first..) I am so proud.

When we were playing in the play pool after lessons, she figured out how to do a front flip in the water. She was so excited to show me over and over again – and I loved watching it. Her interest in swimming is definitely renewed and I couldn’t be more excited for her!