No Fear

My daughter may be deaf.  At 3 1/2 she may hardly be able to speak because of the combination of deafness and the repair of her cleft lip/palate but nothing, I mean nothing keeps this kid away from water.  Since moving back to Indiana we have spent our fair share of time in my parent's pool.  Last year was Emi's first real swimming experience in a pool.  The year we brought her home, we didn't get in a pool at all.  She was a little apprehensive last summer.  She pretty much just hung out on the steps and absolutely disliked the baby float.  She was somewhat OK in our arms but we needed to stay where it was shallow.  Towards the end of last summer she got more brave and we were hopeful.  This summer she is crazy in the pool.

As a matter of fact, just yesterday she was wearing her water wings and decided to take them off and jump straight in.  Mind you she can't touch the bottom.  She's still too short.  Eriks was in the pool so he helped her but she is well on her way to learning to swim.  After jumping in, she did shoot herself back to the surface and was trying to kick to stay afloat.  The problem is she doesn't want to use her hands to help her swim forward. With the water wings she is jumping into the 8 ft deep end of the pool and loving every minute of it.  Jumping into the water is her thing.

So here's praying she'll be swimming by next summer without water wings.  Enjoy the photos from Emi's water fun this summer.