Swimming Lessons!

I signed my big girl up for her first extra-curricular activity of her life this summer … swimming lessons!  L was so excited to go learn to swim.  Especially since I signed her up to have lessons with her best friend.

Her first lesson went really well, considering how little exposure she’s had to the water in her life.  She does her best to keep her face way out of the water, but she’s more than happy to float on her back and kick around with the kickboard.  The only problem came at the end of class, when the teacher took the kids over to the water slide.  L isn’t used to having to wait for someone to catch her at the bottom of the slide, so as soon as the little boy in front of her went, down she went.  The poor teacher, with the little boy in her arms, wasn’t expecting L to come so quickly, so under the water she stayed for 2-3 seconds until the teacher could pull her up.

She came up coughing and gasping – and entirely inconsolable, poor thing.  The teacher brought her over to me with this, “Oh, great, now I’m going to get lectured by an angry parent,” look on her face.  I smiled and took L, assured her she was okay, and got her calmed down.  She was just fine until we got over to where C was waiting, then she broke down again (for another round of sympathy – it barely took anything from C to have her calm again).

I’d assumed I could take S and let her play in the kiddie pool while L had lessons, but we got there to find the kiddie pool broken and drained.  To keep S happy, we waited a 1/2 hr until free swim and I took both the girls swimming.  They loved it!  L was eager to show off the things she’d learned, and S was giddy just being in the water.  I took them both over to the slide.  S was quick to go down over and over again, and L even went down twice.  As long as I was at the bottom, she was okay with it.

But her little dunk the first day still wasn’t enough to dampen her enthusiasm.  She was thrilled to be back in the water with her teacher the second night – although she downright refused to go down the slide with her teacher at the bottom.  And when I didn’t let her stay for free-swim, she was put out with me.  Next year I will definitely sign both girls up for swimming – just so poor S doesn’t have to throw a fit every time I put L in her swimming suit and leave S alone at home with Dad.