The Zittrouer Family: Swimming Like Fish

Now for some of my boys big news:

All of my boys love the water, especially the pool! While we were in Panama City, I got Ashley (Todd's cousin) to give Carter some quick swim lessons so that he would start swimming without his floaties. Carter absolutely adores Ashley and I knew that he would listen to her a lot better than he would his daddy or me, plus Ashley used to teach swim lessons when she was in high school! She gave him about three lessons and he did very well I must say.

On Tuesday Jackson decided that he wanted to swim without his life vest. I was very unsure of this as I had all three boys at the pool by myself. As I mentioned before, we didn't have very good weather until Tuesday so everyone else wanted to be at the beach and I didn't blame them one bit! It didn't help matters that Cooper had decided that he didn't like his float anymore and I was having to hold him-which he loved! He kept insisting so I hesitantly said ok. I told him that if I saw that he was having a hard time, he had to put it back on. We came to an agreement and the life vest came off. To my surprise, he dove right in the water head first and swam like a fish! I was so excited! He swims with his face under water and doesn't hesitate to come up for air and then put his face right back down to continue to swim. Needless to say, I had to brag on him to everyone. He is just three and can swim like he's 10! I really think that this might just be "his thing". I was still a little concerned about how he would handle a situation in which he might get tired and start to panic so I stayed right with him and kept a very close eye on him. After about 45 minutes of him diving in the pool and swimming around, I got my answer. He had done a "cannon ball" into the water and really went down far into the pool. I waited with anticipation as he came up. He got a breath of air and started swimming towards the stairs, but they were far away. I could tell he was getting tired and started to go over to him, but before I could get there or even say anything to him, he flipped over on his back and swam that way for a minute or two, long enough to catch his breath, and then flipped back over and swam to the stairs. I am telling you-he amazes me! He had never heard us say anything about swimming on your back nor had Ashley taught Carter to do that-he just knew that that was what he needed to do. While I'm not signing him up for the summer Olympics just yet, I really do think that we are going to look into putting him on a swim team. He's still not strong enough physically for me to not keep my eyes on him like a hawk but I don't worry about him half as much as I do Carter.

Speaking of Carter, not to be outdone by Jackson, he decided that he wanted to start swimming without his floaties that same day. Again, I was hesitant as I now had Cooper in my arms and a three year old daredevil with no life vest on, but I gave in and let him take them off. He is doing good, but is scared to keep his face in the water for very long. It's so funny but watching them swimming reminds me so much of Brooke and I. She has never been one to swim under the water a whole lot as she is chlosterphobic (sp?). She is a very cautious swimmer, which is good, but she has a very healthy fear of the water. While I have developed a healthy fear of the water and know now that even the best swimmers can drown in an instant, when I was little I was Miss Try Anything. To this day I still swim much better under water than I do above the water. Jackson is so much like me. He will try anything that I will let him do. He has started doing flips in the water and tries very hard to do handstands-we're not quite there yet, though! While I haven't totally retired the floaties or life vest yet (they still ask for them sometimes and it makes me feel better for them to use them when an adult isn't in the pool with them) they really prefer swimming without them now. What can I say...my babies are growing up! Thank goodness I still have a year or two left with Cooper before he decides to be Mr. Independent all the time (we've already gotten to that stage with eating)!

Of course all of this took place on Tuesday before Todd got to the beach (he got there late Tuesday night). I did get some good video of them swimming that day, though. Here are some pictures of their big day:

Carter jumps in without any floaties at all!