Swimming Lessons

Ethan has been asking about swimming lessons since Christmas. For a while we were able to put him off saying it was too cold and the pool was closed. The first day I said it was feeling warm outside (back in March with snow still on the ground, mind you) he bellowed "It's time for swimming lessons!" This kid loves to swim. We finally got around to signing him up for a two week session earlier in July. Every day for a half hour he splashed and kicked and ended up getting the basic strokes down pretty well. This was his first year in the deep pool where they actually do swimming. Previous years were all about splashing and games involving sharks and alligators and jelly beans. In his words "I like the windmill arms swimming and the frog swimming, but I don't like backward swimming because I can't keep my tummy up". Like in every other aspect of his life, Ethan had to constantly be moving. There were four kids in his group, and when the teacher was helping one kid swim, the other three were on the wall waiting their turn. The other kids just hung on to the wall and sort of bobbed while they waited. Ethan was above water only barely enough to stay alive, constantly kicking and paddling and moving. It almost physically pains Ethan to stay still. Kindergarten should be interesting.


Matt got to do the water babies with Jo. Talk about cute. Jo had a favorite toy that she absolutely had to have to get in the water. It was a little yellow duck with Dora riding on it's back. I don't think Jo knows who Dora is, but man she loved that toy. There was an anxious moment every day, walking up to the pile of toys and wondering if the Dora Duck would be there. It always was, and her favorite thing to do in the deep pool was throw the toy and swim, with daddy's help, until she could snatch it up and throw it again. When they moved to the shallow pool half way through each class, Joanna did a lot of crawling like an alligator. The class also involved a lot of song games like "wheels on the bus" and "hokey pokey". It was fun to watch Matt, the only dad in the group, sing and splash and dunk Joanna.

I think he had a pretty good time too.