Little Swimmers

Yesterday was the first day of summer swim lessons for Tory and Aden. Tory's been swimming in the "Backfloat Baby" program at the swim school we go to since she was 6 months old and after she turns three in August, she'll move up to the program's "Little Ones" class. Hard to believe our little peanut will no longer require a parent to swim with her in the pool -- during lessons, at least. It's a day I've been looking forward to for quite some time!

Proud mama alert! I've mentioned before, Tory likes to swim but she's not one of those maniac kids in the water. She's excitedly cautious in the pool and usually says things like, "No more for me?" after things like "zooming" under the water per the instructor's request. She can do it, but doesn't love getting her face wet and honestly, I sympathize. I can swim and I enjoy being in the water, but I don't like to get my face wet either and I always have to plug my nose if I'm going under. My hope in enrolling my kids in swimming lessons at a young age is they'll hopefully learn better swimming skills than I have.

Anyway, I was proud of Tory during swimming class yesterday when she courageously jumped into the pool from a standing position (vs. sitting on the side of the pool), did awesome back floats, etc. Then as we were waiting our turn to "zoom" under the water, Tory closed her eyes and took a deep breath on her own before submerging her face in the water. She came up, took a breath and did it again. My heart swelled with pride! It doesn't seem like much, but Tory's instructor is always encouraging the kids to "hide their eyes" in the water as they swim, but Tory will never do it. I gently coach her to close her eyes and try it, but until this moment she never seemed ready. Yesterday, she did it!

Aden started his own "Backfloat Baby" class yesterday and will continue in that program (on and off, I'm sure) over the next three years. He liked the pool and didn't fuss once during our 30 minute session. In his class are my friend Lindsey's littlest girl, Taylor, a one-year-old boy and another 6 month old just like Aden. They're so cute splashing and kicking their legs together - all so excited to be in the warm pool.

Aden and his friend Taylor

As soon as one little guppy moves up to the big pond, another one begins. That'll make 6 total years of assisting my kids in the pool every week. Dang. I can't say enough wonderful things about the place we take swimming lessons though, and the skills they're teaching my kids. Tory has become quite the swimmer thanks in large part to their instruction and I hope Aden loves the water just as much as she does.