Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming...

Willow had her first swim lesson today.

Apparently, my child was born a fish and I didn't even know it. She hides those gills well.

She's in the Baby Swim class and there were about seven other children in her session. I'd say four out of the seven cried and panicked. Two of them had no reaction whatsoever. But my kid? The smile never left her face. Even after she got dunked -- yes, dunked -- about ten times. She giggled and demanded to do it again and again. Willow got the hang of kicking her feet, lying on her back, and blowing bubbles in the water very quickly. Her instructor was super impressed, and surprised that this was her first lesson. That's my girl! I don't think a smile left my face either. The only word to describe how I felt is pride. So, so proud of my baby girl. (Who seems to be leaving more and more of her baby-ness behind. But that's a whole other post. One that I'll never write because I'm in DENIAL.)

The lesson was only a half hour and I think Willow realized this. The second we left the pool, she was not happy. Honestly, I think the time it took for us to change and dry off was longer than the lesson itself. Seriously, getting a wet baby out of her bathing suit, removing the swim diaper, putting a dry diaper on, getting a new outfit on, etc. -- all in a tiny cubicle, might I add -- is kind of a challenge. Then there was this flimsy curtain that any child could open up at any given time (ie: when I'm naked) that had me extremely worried. Especially since there were a plethora of Soccer Dads lurking outside in the hallways. I think we're calling dibs on the bathroom next time.

Naturally, we finished the night with a bath so Willow could get some more splashing out of her system. She was quite pleased.



Oh, you know you want a closer look at those chompers...


All in all, Baby Swim 101 was a success! So glad we signed up for this.

2 comments:

Leslie said...

Julia took swim classes when she was a baby - from 6 months to about 3 years old. The other girls? Yeah...I'm trying to get around to it.

Jennifer Dawn said...

LOL, I'm sure you've got your hands full! Is Julia a strong swimmer now? Do you think the lessons paid off? (BTW, sorry my reply took a million years. I had no idea this comment existed! Still figuring out this blog thing... whoops.)