Elijah has a major fear of big bodies of water (pools, beaches, lakes, etc) where he sees water in the distance and just stands there whining and crying about it and won't go any closer. When you press him as to why he's crying he says "I'm crying a'because I'm scared'a 'da wadter". Poor guy.
We've done the whole "We are right here with you." "I won't let you go." "Just put your toes in the water." thing. We've begged. We've forced him against his will, holding him while we dip his toes in. He's screamed. He's cried. We've begged more. We may have even bribed. "Do you want to go to McDonalds? Just put your feet in the water." We've distracted with toys, gradually inching him closer and closer to the water. He's no fool, I tell ya. He catches on pretty quickly to our ploys.
So we were really praying for breakthrough with this vacation, and by golly we made some steps. Baby steps, but steps none the less.
We spent a week at these condos about an hour from our house:
And spent most of every day out by the pool. We said, forget the beach. We can go to the beach anytime at home, but we don't have a pool!
Do you want to know the key for Elijah? Cool floats!
We got him all excited about riding in the big blue whale boat, let him sit in it away from the water for a while, then moved it to the water's edge and let him play with toys leaning over the side of the float.
Then gradually, we pulled him into the water while continuing to focus on the toys we were playing with. Before he knew it, he was having fun in the middle of the pool!
He even interacted some with the other kids around him, which is good for the raging introvert around new people and new situations.
OK, so he wasn't wet in the whale boat but he was playing and mingling with a big body of water. Progress!
It seemed like each day we had to start all over with the progress we made the day before, but eventually by the end of the week he was in the water!
How?
He would play with beach toys on the first step of the kiddie pool, and then one day Mom was in a float and pulled him onto her lap and we chased a ball around the pool. Grabbing it, throwing it and chasing it. He had the comfort of Mom (he was clinging and had his legs wrapped tight around mine) and realized he was having fun. He even said "I'm having a'fun at the b-big p-pool." One time he actually stood up on his own in the kids pool (wearing water wings) and another time floated around in a round floatie on his own, again chasing a ball.
Baby steps, but steps none the less! We were excited.
We are just praying that since it is likely we won't see a pool again until next summer that we will not have to start ALL OVER from square one with water fears.
Anything you have done to break your kids (or your own) fears of water? Send your help our way...we need it!
2 comments:
Go Elijah! (Go mom and dad!) I love his cute little sentences... I wish I could hear them in person!
If you still have the whale float, set it up where he can play in it every so often. If you can get hold of a larger than whale blow up pool to let him and JONAS play in the whale while in the bigger blow up pool (with water in it), then maybe when you go to the beach and take the whale float he might sit in it just on the edge of the water and get used to that with mom or dad sitting in the sandy water right next to him. Sounds good anyway.
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