Swimming Lessons

Last Saturday the kids both started swimming lessons. Trust me though, the experience was nothing to write about. On Graham's part, there were a lot of tears, a lot of screaming, and on my part a lot of pleading and a lot of bribery to even peel him off my body. It wasn't pretty. This week was thankfully a completely different experience so I was actually able to take the camera out instead of sweating bullets as a listened to Graham's SCREAMS echo throughout the pool.

Amelia and Daddy Jeff (as well as cousin Miles and his Mommy and Daddy) take their lesson together. Amelia loves her Daddy and loves the water so it's a winning combination!

Graham is also in lessons, but this is his first round without a parent. Graham has never shown even the smallest hint of fear when it comes to water so his reaction last week shocked me. We spent the past week talking about how important it is to know how to swim and how much fun it is to play in the water. Although Graham told me repeatedly he was afraid his teacher was going to drop him (poor kid!) I was able to convince him that he was brave enough to stay in the water for his entire lesson and also that his teacher is a great swimmer and has superhero strength so dropping him wasn't even an option. That and the fact that he now believes swimming lessons are a prerequisite for special vacation we'll be taking this summer seemed to do the trick. By the end of class today Graham was yelling to me from the pool that he loves swimming lessons! Hooray for small victories!

This situation made me laugh...Amelia was really looking forward to getting in the pool and apparently we weren't moving fast enough for her this morning. She disappeared for a few moments and returned like this....gotta love the upside down coat, boots, and lack of pants!

I'm ready for the pool!