Prior to Perth, we'd set up a tub outside the bath, bring bucket by bucket, hot and cold water and she'd "chup chup" away, satisfied and happily. Attempting the next obvious step - in the shower with Deepti or in the bath with me was met with resolute behaviour. Crying, whingeing and refusing, under any circumstance (including bribery with toys) to sit in the water. Fail.
So the next step became the next logical in between step. Take the tub, in the bath and fill that with water. Sigh. This was going to take a while.
And any trip to the beach (Sorrento, VIC, Mar 2010), well had predictable results:
Not even close. And didn't get much closer.Arriving in Perth, this continued. Unfortunately you can't see the celery stick going into the bath with her.
Pleased to say N got over her fears. Albeit slowly. With MUCH encouragement from dada. Here she is attempting to drink the pool. (Naina got wet in the pool whilst clothed several times, hence my commentary).
She did not drink the whole pool. I think her nappies absorbed what she couldn't drink. And also absorbed what she did drink.
So by the time we left, she was not only bathing sans tub in the morning in the bath, but attempting to swim in the afternoon in the pool, with dada's assistance.
5 comments:
We have the opposite problem: can't keep him away from the stuff. He always wants to jump into the public fountains.
Worse, the central square in Clermont-Ferrand has a huge line of unmoated fountains jetting out of the paving. The place is just impossible!
We have the same problem as Bob. Water is a Harriet magnet.
We went down to the Williamstown beach today on a whim, and Harriet wasn't dressed for water play. But she dashed off to the rock pools, cackling all the way. Luckily only the bottoms of her pants were wet by the time we got her back to the sand.
Her love of water is a little troubling, to be honest, since she hasn't learned to swim yet. Until then, I'm aiming for just learning a healthy respect for the stuff.
Hi Bob and Andrew
Did you guys do swimming classes with Jinu/Harriet? Or are they just naturals? Deepti's not very confident around water either, so I think it is genetic, at this stage. Environment can sometimes win.
Speaking of water lovers, Hamish jumped in a fish pond at his grandparents' house today. That wasn't annoying at all.
We did some unofficial lessons with Kate's brother Dan, who used to teach kids to swim. She was a little freaked the first time we went to the pool, but we also took along some familiar toys from bathtime and she warmed up to the idea. However, I think she warmed up faster than some other kids. Most apparently take a few visits before they get confident. So, it sounds like repetition is the trick.
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