Way to go JD!
My oldest son has been working so hard in the pool at OT over the last few months. First we got him out of his float suit and into big boy swim pants. Then we got him into out of the kola bear hug on his OT and into a an inner tub floaty. Today was the best though, we got him to hold onto a noddle and 3x he let go and doggy paddled three feet or so to the edge. It was such a great parent moment.That is great. Adam was VERY afraid of the water also. Now he can swim really well. It was about the same age when he finally let go of the side.Best Wishes and Good Luck.
My son William has always been drawn to water. We moved into a house with a lake when he was just starting to walk and we had to watch anytime we put him down to walk around outside because he would try his best to get to the lake. I was afraid once he got there he would just jump in and not walk the edges.