Ava's Swimming Lessons

I knew as soon as Ava was born I wanted her to learn to swim....And enjoy it as I do.   Well fast forward 3 years...And its time to learn!!!   The problem is Ava is terrified of the water.  I mean we have a awesome splash park in our town that is free and the kid doesn't like it.  NO she isn't my child.  My mom would have had to literally drag me out of that place kicking and screaming.  I still have the urge to run through it and act like a kid.  I refrain though :)    So I knew it was going to be a not so pleasant thing trying to teach her.   One of my Friend's little girl is a great swimmer.  She is on 2 separate swim teams and I have watched her swim. I knew it was the perfect person to teach Ava because Ava adores her!!   So last week every night of the week for an hour Ava went to Swimming lessons with her.  The first night she had no clue what we were doing so she was excited.  I left her and there were no tears.  She actually did good the first night.  She was going under water and holding her nose.  She slipped once and went under not ready so that terrified her.  The next night I think I heard about a million times from the time I got home till the lesson, "Mom I don't want to go underwater"!   There were tears that night.  She ended up trying and doing good though.  Wednesday night she cried a little but still improved. She was learning how to float by then.  Thursday night she started jumping off the side of the pool into her arms.  That is huge for Ava.  She was also improving her floating skills.  Friday night before I even left she was jumping off the diving board.  I was SOOO proud of her.  I didn't expect her to swim by herself in 5 days, especially with her fear of water.  I was so glad that she tried and got more comfortable with the water.