Don't you wish you never had anything else to do

 Swimming has been a big part of our lives these past three weeks; we've been in Brisbane for six days, and I think we've swum five times. The girls each have their own style: Aurora tends to vanish into the depths and swim alone, occasionally gliding by like a silent manatee. She's quite a strong swimmer, but hates cold water; she also resents being made to do anything in the pool, but is gamely going along with swim lessons for the next fortnight. Sophia is keen to improve her swimming, constantly asking for challenges and pushing herself. She gets the most satisfaction out of managing to do things she couldn't do (say, underwater handstands). Tova is incredibly playful in the water, endlessly coming up with games, diving for our one toy (the Toypedo) over and over again. When we play games underwater I regularly hear her laughing while swimming deep under the surface, which is actually quite an eerie sound. She has absolutely no technique but has made up her own eel-like wriggle with quite a strong flutter kick, and can hold her breath twice as long as Sophia. Tova is also fond of shouting "I'm drowning!" and then going completely limp in the water, which is kind of annoying. 

Zadie, meanwhile, has transformed. A week ago, she clung for her life to our necks in the water, wouldn't put her face in the water, and was happiest with a life jacket and two noodles for maximum buoyancy. But the Musgrove Pool that's a half-hour walk away has been absolutely perfect; its kids' pool is only 1m deep so all the others can stand; it's blood-warm so nobody ever wants to get out; and Zadie has made so much progress it's nuts. Over the course of a couple of hours, Tamar got her dunking completely under the water, then swimming short distances under the water, then suddenly I could whoosh her down to the bottom of the pool to collect the toypedo, and next thing you know she's confidently jumping from the edge of the pool. For document night on Thursday she asked to watch a video on kids learning to swim, and locked on to the video's lessons. Every morning she asks to swim, and today managed to swim unassisted while breathing for ten seconds.  Five-year olds are the best because of these moments, where in a week they go from totally helpless to swimming underwater, waving to their sisters and grinning. 

Tamar and I sneak in a couple of lengths when we can; I've been doing 2-3 laps of the 50m pool most days and so far for my back's content. The girls all have three lessons a week for the next two weeks, so it will be interesting to see what the water has in store for us next. 

Dungeons & Dragons on the way to the pool - Tova's the new dungeon master

Tuckered out after a swim

A victorious learner