"Swimming"

Life skills are really important and we have a limited amount of time to teach them to Buttercup. We tried biking, showering, and are working on reading and writing- its summer in Minnesota! Time to try swimming! 

It was a lovely day! Roman had the afternoon off so we made plans to hit the local lake and try swimming! The beach was hoping- everyone is here! Equipt with a snug life jacket, a noodle, Buttercups brave face, and two adults we headed into the water. 

ANKLE DEEP: Buttercups brave face was gone, she was very wary of what is happening and she was looking around at other kids to see what the appropriate response is.

KNEE DEEP: Looking very worried, we approached the first buoy line, not wanting to go under it but complying to our coos of "its okay, were next to you, you can touch!" 

HIP DEEP: Buttercup is NOT ok, she needs to hold a hand and asks to be carried I get her to take a few more steps before she climbs on my back. 

CHEST DEEP: Whimpering on my back, I swing Buttercup's feet back and forth to splash a little and try and prove that this is fun. I slowly knelt on the bottom - she can still touch here, but she doesn't believe me and will stretch her feet out, she is a boa constrictor on my person. 

She eventually scampered up Roman- because he's taller and we walked a little deeper. I tried all of my swimming lesson teaching tricks to try and stop the crying and the fear face. We didn't let go, she was floating around physically just fine, but emotionally a total wreck. 

We tried to get her to go back and forth between us while we stood about 3 feet apart, and she switched between screaming bloody murder, and hysterical laughter- it was a very intense game of child catch. I wanted so badly to just bounce underwater like we do in swim lessons with kids but I used all my mental strength left to not further traumatize buttercup- BUT I REALLY wanted to!!

We tried for a while to get her comfortable in the water but it just wasn't happening- we had to call it quits for the sake of people on the beach calling the cops on us - it sounded like we were torturing her. But I'll reiterate- she had a life jacket on and was clinging to a pool noodle. 

We went back to the beach pausing when she could touch to have her walk herself in, she begrudgingly stretched out her feet to touch the bottom after much coercion, and then stood frozen in the water while Roman and I continued walking. 

Another problem arose when we got to the buoy! I could see her thinking to herself "IM TRAPPED HERE FOREVER!!!" I suggested she could go under it or over it- she considered her options and went under it- disliking very much that it dripped on her hair. 

Once we got back to the beach, we told her to leave her life jacket on and go play. She spent a lot of time watching other kids play and walking half way too them. She couldn't figure out what they were doing in the sand, why they were going in the water on purpose and wondering how she was supposed to play in this sandy landscape. 

I suggested that she could ask the other kids if she could play with them but she was not so interested in that- I taught her all about drizzle sand castles- you have to make them with soaking wet sand so you have to go ankle deep to get the sand.  She constructed a very nice castle, added some sticks, flowers, and rocks for decoration. 

Hopefully, next time will go better and we can get that face in the water, and have a little fun! Because we want to go from this:
 

to this: