Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Swimming Lessons!!!

Yesterday was the first day of the kids' swim lessons. If you know the kids at all, you know that they do NOT like water! We can barely get them to run through the sprinklers, let alone go into our inflatable baby pool! You can imagine their horror when they got to the pool and saw just how big it was. Their previous excitement about swim lessons vanished in the blink of an eye. Luckily their first day was on a day Chris was working from home, so he could help me coax the kids into the pool.

Sienna was the easiest one to talk into sitting on the edge of the pool, and after a few short minutes, she let the instructor pick her up and set her on the toddler platform in the pool. At this point, Brayden was still clinging to Chris and refusing to get anywhere near the pool. I finally talked him into sitting on the edge and dangling his feet in the water. Step 1 complete!
After a few minutes, he still refused to get into the water with Sienna. So, I grabbed both of his hands and lifted him off the edge while the instructor grabbed him and carried him into the water. Step 2 complete!

Since he didn't seem too traumatized, they started playing "Simon Says". As you can see, Brayden still wasn't sure what to think, so the instructor helped him play the game while he was getting comfortable with the water. Behind them, you can see that Sienna is doing GREAT!
Then Sienna went for a swim in the pool, and loved it!
YEA SIENNA!
The kids had 2 instructors...one female, one male. Sienna absolutely did NOT like it when the guy got anywhere near her! She would start crying and Chris would have to come to her rescue.
Brayden's preschool friend, Brianna, tried talking him into going for a swim. How cute is that?!?!?!Yea, Brayden decided to try it! We thought it was pretty funny watching Brayden work so hard to keep his head as far above the water as possible!
More Simon Says!
Sienna even learned to blow bubbles in the water!
Then it was time for all of the kids to get out of the pool so that they could JUMP in!
I was pretty sure that this wasn't going to go well, especially since Brayden was first in line, but to our surprise, he did it!!!
And, loved it! He ended up jumping 3 or 4 times!
Next up, Sienna!

At the end of class, the instructors gave all the kids high-five's! Of course, Sienna refused to give the guy a high-five! Hopefully she'll warm up to him soon because the class is only 2 weeks long!
We were so proud of the kids for doing so well!!! It made my day and I can't wait to take them back today. I'm on my own, so hopefully they'll remember just how much fun they had! Oh, I guess I should mention that after the 30 minute class was over, Sienna started crying. When we asked her what was wrong, she said that she didn't want to get out of the pool! YEA!

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