Carter Conquers!

December 2007 - Swimming at Dean's Birthday Party. I was lulled into a false security, and I thought my brother had Carter. He followed me into deep water, and was "saved" by a lifeguard. After this experience, every time we got in the pool he would cling to us and would scream if we tried to have him swim.

June 2009 -Bear Lake with Emilee and Richard and the Taylor family. Carter started out very scared, but "Papa Paul" worked with Carter and soon had him "swimming" with a life jacket. Huge improvement.

July 4th, 2009 - Swimming with Blaise at Grandma Pam's House. Carter finally seemed to be getting over his fears. He swam all over the pool...with the life jacket...he watched in awe how Blaise seemed so comfortable in the water. Blaise even took off his life jacket to practice swimming. Blaise would jump fearlessly off the diving board. Carter tried it, with someone there to catch him, but refused to try it on his own.
July 16th, 2009 - Swimming lessons at Lynette Clark's back yard. AMAZING! Carter did fantastic. He was the first one to try and succeed at doing a back float unassisted. He was the first one to try and succeed at swimming with his face in the water to his teacher. He did a killer knee dive into the pool. He loved trying to "sit" on the bottom of the pool. He dived for the Starbursts on the bottom of the pool as if they were gold. Was this the child that a few months ago wouldn't leave the stairs at the pool?

July 20th, 2009 - The progress continues. Today's lesson: Don't be afraid of the deep end. They taught him to jump off in the deep end, and then swim to the shallow or the side. He learned how to roll over to a back float to breathe. The accomplishment of the day was that he jumped off the diving board, holding a hand of the teacher. But he did it!

July 21, 2009 - Family celebration swim day. Today Carter jumped and jumped off the diving board. I showed him my dive off the diving board...and then he tried it! He dived off with just a little belly flop at the end! He then swam to the side of the pool! I'm so proud of him! He has conquered this fear! I hope he will always remember that in life, if you have the right training then nothing is impossible.