Swimming Lessons

The girls have been taking swimming lessons together for the past few weeks. It's great having them in the same class and really convenient. They are having a lot of fun and actually making some progress. Fiona always seems more willing to just go for it, while Luli takes some time to adjust and get comfortable at her own pace. Fiona is floating on her back with assistance, with her ears in the water for 10 seconds! Luli made a lot of progress today and actually put her ears in the water during the back float for one second, seriously a HUGE accomplishment for her. We are all really proud. Really my only goal is that they both be swimming for next summer, so we have time to progress at whatever pace works for them. I'll be posting more updates and pictures as the lessons progress and developments occur.

Swimming Lessons - Week Two

Luli has been attending her second week of swim lessons, and all seems to be positive. She's definitely excited to go and I can see progress on most things involving being on her tummy. Things on the back, well that's another story, back kicking and back floating are not going over very well. I happened to catch the experience of her learning to back float yesterday. I seriously laughed out loud, and thought "God bless Mr. Mike." He was so positive and encouraging with her and she could not have looked more like a spaz! I still crack up thinking about it, I had to re-enact the scene for Oscar last night (of course after the girls were in bed, I'm not going to mock my child). But you have to picture it, oh god if the camera were only waterproof, so Mr. Mike has Luli in the water and he's being really encouraging telling her to just lay her head back and put her feet in the water. YES, head AND feet are out of the water! So she has her head up and out with this scrunched up worried face, and her legs are sticking up out of the water pointing in jagged directions. She was so rigid I just couldn't help but laugh and think how she's clearly mine. Her lack of grace and fluid movement is a dead give away! I'll have to take a picture of me re-enacting the scene. But all the while Mr. Mike is telling her how great she's doing and how he's so proud of her and giving her high fives. I mean he was so great, in three years maybe she'll actually back float! HA!

Fiona is doing great. I hold my hands at water level now, just to catch her before her head goes under. She jumps so easily and loves it. She's also got a good swimming motion started when we go back to the wall for another jump. She likes to swim like a "fish" in the zero entrance area, and in the baby pool. This is when she floats and uses her hands to move her around (so her body is floating but her arms are straight down to the floor walking along). She seems to have a more natural ability for the pool, perhaps this is Oscar's trait for good athletics?

Beautiful Day to be Outside!

Today has been so beautiful, so we had to spend most of it outside playing with all our outside toys. The morning was spent out back playing with balls and digging in the sandbox. We did run some errands in between snack and lunch time though.

Luli wanted a picnic lunch and decided we should picnic in the dining room because "it's less windy inside." Lunch was painfully long, indoor picnics do not lend their hand to an efficient eat. Therefore they lost the option of playing in the pool before nap (which sun wise would have been great!). After nap time (nap for Fiona, rest for Luli - "I just wasn't that tired Mommy, I tried to though, sometimes that happens when you're a big girl, it's ok Mommy,") we ran to the grocery for two items needed to make dinner and then it was on to our final destination of the pool.

Wow, has one word ever created so much joy for Fiona?! I need to video her reaction to being told we're going to the pool, it's beautiful and hysterical. Enjoy the photos. I'm also trying a new thing with picasa photos on the sidebar, so you should be able to see more photos there (crossing fingers).

I hope you all enjoyed the day as much as we did!

Swimming Lessons - Day Four

Today we finished up week one of our two week swim lesson class. Luli is doing better every day and not freaking out at all. She was excited to go to class today and I didn't have to persuade her. But this may also have been due to the fact that we got an "Angelina Ballerina" DVD from the library today and I told her earlier she could watch it if she did well in swimming. A little bribery never hurt, right?

I kept an eye on her and she's doing better and better, definitely not ready to let go and swim laps anytime soon, but getting more comfy with the water.

Fiona on the other hand is my daredevil. Last week, at Aunt Joan and Uncle Tom's house she would have nothing to do with even putting her toes in the pool. This week she's jumping to me in the water without holding my hands. Seriously, she just jumps right to me. She's really not a stickler for waiting for "3" either, she can go on "1" "2" or "3." So be ready for her jump at any point! Frankly I'm not really sure if Fiona would have been comfortable in a class setting, things may have worked out for the best in the end (saving me some money, which isn't half bad).

Let's see if all progress is lost or retained on Monday!

Swimming Lessons - Day Three

Today was really grey and threatening to storm all day. I kept checking the lesson site to make sure we were on for lessons, amazingly 20 minutes before our lesson the skies cleared and it was really lovely.

Luli and Fiona got up from naps asking for the pool, Fiona was so excited! Fiona kept repeating "poo poo, I want poo." Luli put her bathing suit on all by herself, and Fiona wanted her's on faster than I could go.

We got there early and enjoyed some splashing and swimming in the kiddie pool, the big pool was on rest time. Luli was shy as she approached her lesson but went when she had no other choice. Fiona and I removed ourselves to the kiddie pool. That is, until Fiona decided to graduate to the big pool. Once we were in, she got more and more curious. She walked in from the zero entry until the water was up to her shoulders, then she wanted Mommy to carry her to the deeper section. I carried her to the terribly deep 3 ft section! There we jumped from the side repeatedly. She kept saying "I want more jump." So we'd count to three, jump and squeal with delight, then point and say "I want more jump," or sometimes it was just point and "more."

I watched Luli's progress to see how she was doing with her teacher and how her attitude was. I'm impressed with her belly kicking and more impressed with Mr. Mike's patience with the class. There is a wanderer who gets up frequently, she's also very comfortable in the pool and gets in while another kid is out with Mr. Mike. We're making progress, and overall I'm happy with both girls acceptance of the water this week.

We'll let you know how tomorrow goes!

Swimming Lessons - Day Two

Today we had our second swim lesson. Let me rephrase, today LULI had her second swim lesson. After some firmly worded voicemail and emails, I have gotten a full refund on Fiona's lesson, so I'll be taking care of teaching her some water acclimation while Luli learns from Mr. Mike.

Luli did much better today with her lesson, well from what I could see. She didn't seem very thrilled about going to lessons today but I wasn't about to let her back out of it. We got there early and did some play in the kiddie pool, so everyone was excited about swimming now. When class started Luli acted very shy but I told her to go sit with her class and then left with Fiona. I did hang back and take a few photos. Later she seemed to be doing so well, kicking out with Mr. Mike and blowing bubbles in the water that I thought I could go a bit closer for a nice picture of her in the water with Mr. Mike. Well she saw me, and then she had a freak out in the pool - check out that face in the picture!

Fiona had a great time in the kiddie pool, splashing and walking around. Eventually she wanted to go to the big pool, where they have a zero entrance area. She had a great time there also, laying on her belly and "floating," splashing with her hands, kicking with her legs, and trying her hand at putting her face in the water. It was a great day at the pool for all three of us. And I have actually gotten to the point where I think I could survive taking both to the pool on my own!

Learning to Swim

Today was the first swim lesson for both girls, well it was supposed to be. The pool has an independent company teaching lessons there. In order to register you had to do it online and they gave no confirmation. I was a bit annoyed and intrigued to see if in fact we'd really be on a roster. Luli was signed up for the Preschool I class, so she'd take it on her own and Fiona was signed up for the Toddler class that is a parent assisted class. Well apparently no one else signed up for the Toddler class so they just put Fiona in the same class as Luli. She's definitely not ready for that. Luli had her class and Fiona and I went into the kiddie pool to play. Luli had a bit of a freak out with learning to get into the pool on her own and ran to me. I let her cry and then told her, "Luli you have to sit with your class and do as your teacher says, Mommy is going to leave with Fiona now." I knew if I stayed within sight she'd continue to freak out and run to me. From the kiddie pool I could safely watch her (and Fiona, obviously) but Luli couldn't see me. She was definitely scared but she did OK. We go back tomorrow, so we'll see if there is some improvement.