Ok, so ideally I would have started this blog before E.V. was born and would have documented everything up to this point with pithy posts describing all our adventures and mishaps. Since I didn’t do that, I have been fighting the inertia of the blank page. I didn’t start at the beginning like I should have, so when do I start? The answer is now, at least on the topic of swimming. By the by, if you know E.V. and me and just want the latest info, skip down to the section labeled, ‘The Present’ for an exciting update (exciting for me at least).
The Beginning – May 2, 2015
Let’s rewind a bit to the Jazzfest in New Orleans in May of 2015. My wife, Lesley, works with a puppet company that gets invited to do shows in the children’s tent, I run sound for the show, and so we found ourselves on the coast in a hotel. Said hotel had a pool, and a hot tub and Lesley and I had bathing suits. 
But we also had E.V. who had never encountered a body of water that contained more than a gallon. After a quick conversation and a trip to Wal-mart for swim diapers, we decided to see how she would react. She took to the water like a fish to, well, water!
The Lessons – May – August 2015
Fast forward a couple of weeks and, with a little help from Grammy, E.V. is enrolled in swim lessons at Maley Swim School in Ridgeland. 
Maley’s was great, it helped E.V. get used to being in, around, and under water. She has always loved playing in the bathtub and having swim lessons every week just reinforced that love! Also, our teacher was great about teaching Lesley and me things to practice with E.V. to make her a better swimmer outside of class.
So E.V. and I made a point of going to a public pool at least once, if not twice or three times, a week to supplement her thirty minute weekly lessons. 
We’d practice going under water for greater and greater distances. E.V. strengthened her arms to the point where she could hold herself up out of the water while holding onto the side of the pool. She loved every minute of it, and so did everyone who was in the pool with her. Complete strangers would compliment her on her prowess, and sometimes she would even swim to them!
Soon all the practice showed in class as E.V. would be doing things kids two or three times her age would struggle to do. Then,when it came time to buy more lessons, we found out that E.V. would have to repeat the same lessons over, probably twice, because of her age, even though the teacher admitted that E.V. was doing better than kids in the next class up. It was a company policy, we understood, but Lesley and I decided on other arrangements.
The Y – September 2015 – Present (June 2016)
When looking for other places for E.V. to swim year round, we found out that the local YMCA had an indoor pool with family swim time every day. Also, it was only $75 a month, which is about what the swim lessons cost. With the Y, our whole family gets to swim, multiple times a week if we want, with no thirty-minute time limit, and we get to use the gym too. Talk about a no-brainer!
E.V. loves going to swim at the YMCA. The water is heated, so it’s not too hot or cold, and the shallow end has a gentle slope from zero to four feet deep for half the pool, imagine a beach where the sand slopes down into the water getting gradually deeper, rather than steps or other drop off. This means that E.V. can stand and play on her own in the first quarter of the pool, all the way to the two-foot mark! We have been practicing twice a week for the most part since joining. Now let’s fast forward to the recent present…
The Present – June 16, 2016
Recently, due to my job changing its format and other scheduling issues, we’ve had to skip a week here and there and it has affected E.V. and how she feels about the pool. At the end of last month we had to skip a week and a half of our swimming time, and when we went back at the beginning of this month, E.V. seemed to be scared of the water. Since then it’s been a battle to get her to jump in the pool and swim like before. She screams and cries, and Lesley and I still have to make her jump in and go underwater, otherwise she will never get used to the water again. For a while, we sort of tricked E.V. into jumping in and swimming by having her throw a ball in the water and then jump in to chase it, but even that stopped working last week. I feared we somehow made her scared of the water.
Today E.V. did something new. After fighting to try to get her to swim in the deep end for half an hour I declared defeat and let her play in the shallow end of the pool. She playing and giggling for awhile, then she got up and walked to where the water was almost up to her chin and called out to me, ‘Poppy, Poppy!’ and then giggled. I swam over to her and when I got about four feet away she placed her hand on her head and pushed herself under the water. I waited for her to pop up, she had never pushed her head under before, I have no idea where she learned it, but usually she dunked her head for a second and popped back up so I wasn’t concerned.
Instead of popping back up she kicked off the ground and swam to me underwater! When she got to me, she pulled herself out of the water by my chest hair as per painfully usual. Then she giggled, clapped and shouted, ‘Swim! Swim!’ After a few moments of celebration she walked away from me, about four feet again, bounced three times said, ‘One, Two, Tree,’ took a deep breath while placing her hand on her head and dunked herself and swam to me again. I was completely flabbergasted. E.V. wasn’t afraid of the water, apparently she just wanted to swim on her own terms! For the next forty-five minutes, E.V. repeated this process over and over. Taking blessings where I can get them, I increased the distance little by little and she was swimming about ten feet under her own power, of her own volition before we were through.
Finally, she came up for air, and instead of immediately pushing away to go again she held me tight. After a moment, she leaned back and put a finger over her lips and said, ‘Shhh,’ and then signed ‘sleep’. ‘Who’s sleeping sweetheart?’ I asked. ‘Naptime, Poppy,’ E.V. said and signed to me and then put her head on my shoulder. She didn’t go to sleep until we got to the car, but when her booty hit that car seat she was out like a light. I was bursting with pride the whole way home, my little girl can swim, she can swim on her own, for a little way at least.
So now you all are all caught up, and future swimming updates will assume you have read this one. Thanks for reading!
Lawrence – the Home Poppy.
I love the stories of E.V.’s adventures!
Please keep them coming!
Thanks! I’ll do my best!