Swimming Lessons

Asher has been taking swimming lessons the last several weeks and it has been so much fun. He did a really good job and now he can float on his back by himself! He is pretty proud of himself.

The first day of swimming lessons was a bit hard for me. Asher was super excited and adapted to his class and his teacher really well, but it tugged at my heart strings a bit to see him so independent. I was proud and excited for him, but it just made me realize that he really isn't my little baby any more. He is growing up so fast and I'm not sure if I'm ready for that. I also had a hard time because I taught swimming lessons for 6 years during high school and college and so the first day I almost drove myself crazy by mentally correcting everything the teacher did, "Oh, she should hold him under the head not the arms", "Why is she giving so much attention to the crying girl, give her time and she'll be fine", "The kids are sitting on the step too much, if I was teaching I'd be having them do this"... and on and on. Finally by the second day I realized that I just needed to let the poor teacher do her job and to stop planning my own lessons. I was paying her to teach my son for a reason and she really is a good teacher.

In fact, after the first day of lessons Asher told me "Mom, my teacher is a princess" and he whenever he talks about her he calls her "the princess." It is really cute.

Much to my surprise, because he never liked to do it with me, Asher's favorite part of swimming lessons was to do a "monkey" (hang on to the side and work your way down the wall) and jumping off the side. He was quite enthusiastic about the jumping! Watching him brought back many happy memories of summers full of three-year-old jumping off the diving board onto my head!

The best part about where we took the lessons was that they had the lessons inside and then the kids (and moms) could swim in the outdoor pool afterwards for as long as they wanted. This was really good because Rose would have thought life unbearably unfair if she hadn't gotten to go swimming too. She did a really good job being patient and watching Asher and then would go right out into the little pool and copy all the things she saw him do. She is now really good at blowing bubbles, kicking her legs and putting her eyes in the water!

Asher's lessons were at 9 AM and then we'd usually stay and swim until 11:30. We have had such a fun two weeks spending every morning at the pool. I am really going to miss it but I guess that summer is coming to an end really soon so I'll just have to accept it! I don't know how I am going to convince Rose that she doesn't need to wear a swimming suit every day now though... I don't know what it is with that girl and swimming suits, but she loves them!

Here is a cute video of Asher and Rose swimming. Rose surprised me and put her whole face in the water, I'm glad I got it on video!