go fish.

So last year I tried to get her to take swim lessons and she was totally game...until she found out that her teacher's name was Austin, which meant her swim teacher was a boy, and there was no way she was swimming with a boy.  I convinced her to go and 'just' watch.  She did, but wouldn't get close to the pool, or the teacher, or the 4 other boys that were in her class.  In fact she flat out told me "I don't like stinky boys.  And I will never swim with them." 
 All right crazy woman, you win.

I promised myself, from that day forward, I would stop trying to get her to do things she didn't want to do.  And you know what...it worked out well.  She just needed to wait till she was good and ready (and needed a lot of help from Zaide who swam with her at the gym every single Wednesday morning).  She found her confidence.  She's come a long way from clinging on to our necks for dear life.  She even jumps in now...from the edge of the pool.  That, my friends, is bigtime.  And the best part, she couldn't stop smiling the whole entire class.  Ear to ear smiles, even when she got water in her eyes (which shocked me because if she gets water in her eyes in the bathtub time actually stands still and you would swear one of her limbs must have been sucked down the drain), and she was even smiling when she had to swim with the stinky boys in her class. 

Her wingman.