The First of Many

Today we had Eli's first swim lesson without a parent in the pool. For the next 10 days, Eli will get into the pool with an instructor and 3-4 other kids for about 30 minutes. He was pretty excited about it, but he did ask me several times if the teacher (Miss Sasha) was going to take his turtle-back off to make him swim. I reassured him that eventually she would, but not unless he was ready. But I don't think he needed the reassurance...it was almost as if he was asking because he wanted her to require him to swim without it. Weird.

So the lesson started at 4:30, but the kids and I arrived a little after 4, so Eli could 'warm up'. He jumped off of the diving board a dozen times before we played in the baby pool as the other lesson finished up. When it was time for Eli to meet his group, he turned into a different child: very very focused. Maddux and I swam in the other side of the big pool so that I could see what he was doing and how he was reacting. I was very curious to see what the teacher asked of Eli and how he responded.

Eli and two similarly aged little girls sat on the side of the pool while Miss Sasha talked to them. She had them raise their hands a few times and then they played Simon Says to get them all in the pool. This lesson seemed to be primarily focused on Miss Sasha gauging their abilities and water 'friendliness'. They all jumped in with her help and swam to the stairs (all wearing some type of floatation device). But the last thing they did was jump in and swim that same path with NO flotation. Of course, Miss Sasha had to help them a little with that one. Eli loved it. He finished up and then asked to go back to the diving board, of course. The older kids were playing "Sharks & Minnows" at that time, so the waters were a bit rough. This meant that when Eli surfaced from his jump and swam to the ladder, sometimes the 'waves' washed over his head. But he never panicked. He just kept swimming. This kid amazes me.

And Maddux.... While Eli had his lesson she grew much more brave with swimming also. She went from leaning over off of the side into my arms to jumping in and going under before I pulled her up. And she monkeyed her way up and down the side of the pool using only her arm strength several times. I even had her kicking and moving her arms, 'round-and-round' style, through the pool in between jumps. She and I had a great time while Eli was in his lesson. It's going to be a fun 10 days!!