Little Fish

While my mom was here, she got some good pictures of my kids being little fish at swim lessons.  I'm so proud of how well each of them does in the water and feel thankful that we have such a great local program and have been able to keep them in consistent lessons.  The babies are supposed to stay in the water with their moms until they are two, but they progressed Bailey into a teacher-lead class several months before his second birthday.  His first lesson without me was pretty bitter-sweet because he looked so big and I'm just not ready for my baby to be so grown up yet!  But he did keep looking back in my direction to show off what he was doing and to show me that he got an M&M for his big swims.  I was also pretty impressed by him because in the teacher-lead class, the kids have to sit on turtles on the side of the pool until it is their turn to swim.  Bailey, who tends to be a little reckless with me in the water, patiently waited on his turtle and did not attempt to get in the water without being called upon.  I was proud of him for this especially since he is almost a full year younger than some of the kids in his class.  I was worried he might have trouble comprehending the instructions but he did a great job obeying his darling teacher Ms. Hannah Jo.

 The next three pictures are a sequence that do a pretty good job of show off his ability in the water.  He pushes off totally independently and can make it quite far in the water by both kicking and pulling.  I'm so proud of him!

Here is the class singing and dancing to "the kids in the pool" song which is to the tune of "the wheels on the bus".

Bailey will continue swim lessons this summer (although we are having Ainsley take a break because we will be in the pool so often) and even though he has only been in this class for a third of a session, they are letting him move up, even skipping the next level to go up two levels.  I know I'm boasting - but I'm just so proud of him!!

Then there is my other little fish, Ainsley.  She often says that she wants to be a mermaid when she grows up and has already requested a swim birthday party.  She really is completely independent in the water and loves swim lessons because they talk about being mermaids, reaching up high in the air to make rainbows, and looking in the water to see pirate treasure.  Plus her teacher's name is Ms Ariel, so it can't get much better than that!  She has progressed consistently through all the swim levels and I have seen such improvement in her ability over the past year.  I'm excited to see how well she does this summer when we will have so much time in the water.  Below she is using the kick board in their kicking drills.

Ainsley and the other cute kiddos in her class...

Here she is doing the forward crawl and taking a front breath...

Her independent back float...

My parents put us kids in swim lessons early on and when I was younger I was on the swim team, was a life guard, and taught swim lessons.  I have always enjoyed feeling confident in my swimming ability and feel so fortunate to be able to pass that on to my children.  I love watching them enjoying being in the water as much as I did/do!