without wings

today we officially retired pooka's water wings. yesterday she swam a little without them, but today she really got rid of them. yesterday i showed her the breaststroke, using a knives and spoons analogy. the kicking motion was harder to describe, though.

today she remembered the knives and spoons, and was able to do it very well. aunt marianne coaxed her out of the floaties and she tried doing little bits of swimming. by the end of the day with kisu, she was going all the way across the spool by herself. sometimes she breaststrokes, sometimes just doggy paddles. for some reason she can't get her legs up parallel to the surface, so it's more difficult than it should be. when she gets a little bit of water in her mouth, she starts to panic and stops using her arms. it looks like she's trying to jog across the pool.

kisu was working on bouyancy and rhymthic breathing with her. she was getting better with every attempt, but she was beat by the end of the day. i want to go back again next weekend so she can do more before the end of the season. i don't want her to forget and get scared again by next summer.