Swimming Lessons

Where do I even start? I’m super glad we did this… but who knew swimming lessons could be so intense at this age??!!! I remember taking Rowan to water babies when he was 7 months old. You know… singing, splashing around in the water…and a little bit of going under (which scared me enough). Well I had been wanting to get Rowan back in the water for awhile now and heard through the grapevine about a local lady who has a pool at her house and has been teaching for over 20 years. Apparently  “everyone and their mom” know about her, and she’s the best.

My mom committed to watching Isla twice a week for 6 weeks during the lesson which was SO nice and helpful. Also kind of special for me to have the time with just Rowan.

So the gal who teaches is like a freaking marine. I am not kidding. There’s no introduction, no “hi, hello, how are you?” but she means business and I actually really liked her by the end. We started out with moms in the pool for our class but by lesson #4, she kicked us out. There was ALWAYS some kid bawling his eyes out the entire time. She would stop and yell, “YOU KNOW  I DONT LIKE CRYING! STOP BEING A BABY!!!” among other things. I’m not even making this up. Totally intimidating. It’s also hard for me because we do things SO differently with our parenting style. I’m not into crying, or making Rowan tough it out. He actually really liked her though but when it was time for us to get out, he kind of freaked out. I basically sat at the edge of the pool and held his hand, coaching him through. He would say, “ Let’s talk mommy” when it wasn’t his turn with the teacher. So..I would talk to him about what we had done that weekend…or later that day. It was actually kind of sweet and a good way to distract him. He really learned a lot though. He can tread water on his own, knee dive, and jump off the diving board. The teacher asked if we were signing up for the next, and last session for the summer. My answer? No… lol. I think we had all we could handle but I would honestly take him next summer.  I think it was also pretty good for him to be pushed out of his comfort zone.

Here are a few photos.

oh, and now that i’m writing this post, I can’t seem to find any photos of him on the diving board! I know they’re somewhere…

Before I had to get out of the water… haha. You can see his flotation belt. By the end, he only had a couple on his back. It’s the method she uses and i think it’s pretty great.