A Swimming We Will Go

The boys have all just finished swimming lessons....most importantly(well not most importantly meaning the other two didn't matter but most importantly considering what happened to Caleb here earlier in the summer)Caleb finished his swimming lessons. He was enrolled in a parent/child class because any child under the age of 36 months has have a parent in the pool with them. When I saw that I almost chickened out...you see I don't own a bathing suit and I don't wear a bathing suit. I've had four children and my bathing suit days are over..we all know what happens after you have kids..everything changes on every square inch of your body. When I went into the pool I had on shorts and a tank top but definitely no bathing suit...David always bugged me about getting one but I refused because I was NOT going to be caught dead in a bathing suit. I'll even admit that I had a panic attack when I knew that I was going to have to get in the pool with Caleb...I tried to talk David into doing it but he wouldn't(really what are husbands for if they aren't going to back you up in your time of need)..I really think he saw this as the perfect opportunity for me to be made to get a suit so he wasn't going to say a word. I even waited until the day of Caleb's actual lesson to go and get one. I finally sat down and told myself that I had to do this..after what happened with Caleb I didn't want him scared of the water and most importantly I wanted him to know some safety there if possible for his age. So off we went..Caleb was signed up for two nights a week for two weeks and the goal of the class was to teach them to be comfortable in the water. They tried to teach them to kick and paddle their arms but Caleb didn't really catch onto that...although the last night I had him kicking his legs :)


Let me start by saying it was frickin' cold in that pool!!!!!! Caleb shivered the entire time..after the first night I put a t shirt on him but he still shivered. They need to heat the pools at the YMCA!



One of the big goals was get them to reach away from your body towards something else for freedom in the water. He loved playing with the balls!


I had to include this one in here even though you can't see his face straight on...look very closely and there's a hint of a smile there. This was the ONLY time he smiled the entire time! He would be excited to go and say he wanted to go to the pool and go round and round but he would never talk or smile once we got there.


See his face? Bless his heart...he looks miserable! He never cried when we were in the pool but when I went back to look at pictures he had the saddest face on. :(



London Bridge...which I must say I got knocked in the head with more than once.


Another of the goals when we were there was to teach them how to get out of the pool on their own if they were to fall in. This really rang true with me since we've been there so it was very important. The teacher said to teach them elbow,elbow,belly,knee to get out....he kinda got another system going but he always made it out and he loved trying to get out of the pool on his own!




Then he'd jump back in...the very first time he did this he wasn't excited about it at all but after that he'd immediately grab my hands ready to jump.


This was when we were to pass them through to the teacher. He wasn't real hip on reaching his arms out to her.


When she passed him back she'd glide him back to me underwater.



He always hates water in his eyes...even in the bathtub after you wash his hair you have to have a towel ready to go.


Look there might be another little smirk on his face.

All in all he actually had a good time. He always asked to go and when he took his bath at night he would lay on his tummy in the tub and say he was swimming in the swimming pool. He even asked yesterday to get into the pool so I think it did him good even if I had to conquer my fear and buy a bathing suit.