Swim!

Drew had his very first swimming lesson on Saturday morning.  Like I mentioned last week, my sister was in town for the weekend, so she came along and documented the lesson for us, which means I am able to share some pictures and videos with you.  We all had so much fun, and Doug and I already learned some pretty great tips for swimming with a little one.

We got to the lessons REALLY early.  What can I say, I like to be on time! Needless to say, we had quite a bit of time to kill before the lessons were going to start.  We showed my sister around our gym, and then headed to the pool to wait. 

As it got closer, I got more and more nervous.  I knew Drew would do great, I just worry about him.  I have nightmares about children drowning, so I was a little hesitant to have him near the water.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m actually quite a good swimmer (both of my parents swam in college, so they taught me at a really young age as well), and I don’t worry about it myself at all, but I worry about Drew since he can’t swim and has no way to save himself.  I know that the best thing to do is get him comfortable around the water and teach him how to swim, which is why we are starting lessons so early!

Anyway, the instructor came over (we had a substitute instructor because our normal instructor is 30 weeks pregnant and was having a baby shower that morning) and we all got in the pool.  Drew really seemed to like the water, and immediately starting kicking his legs!

Unfortunately, Drew was by far the youngest child in the class.  There were three other children, two that were three years old and one that was four. Consequently, we had to modify most of the activities because Drew was so much younger than the others.  I was kind of hoping we would be in a class with children more Drew’s age, so the activities wouldn’t be so advanced, too advanced for Drew, but there must not have been any other young ones signed up.  More than anything else, we really just wanted Drew to get used to being in the water, so it worked out fine.  I think our substitute instructor is used to teaching older kids, so maybe next week, when we have our regular instructor back, she will have more ideas of things for Drew to do.

One of the activities was floating across the pool.  Of course the older kids were kicking their way across, but we just helped Drew float across the pool.  He was a natural!

Drew did awesome with all of all of the activities that the instructor had us do, up until the submersion that is.  I knew it would be hard to put him underwater, but I wasn't prepared for him to get as sad as he did.  He didn’t love it.  Here’s a video of Drew’s first time being dunked under water.  Poor guy!

We've already learned some helpful tips about swimming with a young child from just this one lesson, so I'm excited for what the rest of the class will bring. The instructor thought it was great that both Doug and I were at the lessons.  In fact, she said it was the first time that both parents had come to a lesson, which I thought was really weird.  I guess we just figured that’s what everyone did, and of course, we both wanted to be involved.  She thought it would be good in the long run too, because sometimes when a child swims with one parent at the lessons, they get used to swimming with that parent, and won’t swim with the other.  She said that the same went for submerging Drew.  Since Doug did it the first time, I should do it next time so that Drew doesn’t relate dad to having to go under water and not want to swim with him.

Overall, the lessons were really fun.  Drew really liked it, and I’m already excited for next week.  It will be so much fun to take him in the pool in Hawaii, and now I feel like we have a better idea of how to do that safely!  It sure is fun to watch him grow up, and I'm so excited for all of the activities we will be able to do together as a family as he gets older!