Lessons in Motherhood

Sunday was the first day that Hailey swam all by herself away from the stairs.  I was so incredibly proud of her.  She has known how to swim pretty much the entire summer, but she has been very leery of moving away from the steps. We tried bribing, cajoling, begging, pushing, and threatening, but nothing worked.  She just was not confidant enough to move away from the stairs.  Finally, she and I had a long talk before bed one night.  I told her that I was sad that she was missing out on swimming with her friends.  I asked her what she was afraid of, and we really tried to address her concerns.  It was the first real heart to heart that we have ever had.  It was quite a few days ago so I didn’t know if it would still have an impact, but it did.  She trusted me enough to try, and once she knew she could do it, it was all over.  This is about the tenth time she swam like this so she’s hamming it up a bit in this video by sticking her head in and out of the water.  She’s going to be a fish!