(8 months) Emily is taking swim lessons! Our local community pool offered a parent-tot swim class to introduce little ones to water. Emily is the only child in the class so we are getting a lot of one-on-one time with the instructor. Emily thinks the water is cold and is fussy until she gets used to it. I think it takes Mommy just as long to get used to the water as it takes Emily. Some of the activities we do in the pool are “swimming” between Mommy and the instructor while focusing on the kicking motion, jumping into the pool from the side of the pool, floating on our back, splashing Mommy to encourage movement of the arms, and holding on to the side of the pool by ourselves. There are also fun things to look at while we are in the pool. There are lane flags, lane dividers, bubbles made by the instructor, and water geysers made by Mommy.

Overall, Emily is doing great in the class. She likes Ms. Joyce, her instructor, and doesn’t seem to mind the water. She has a natural kicking motion anyway and that translates well into the kicking motion for swimming. Part way through the series of classes, Emily has decided that she needs to hold on to Mommy more while we are in the pool. I’m sorry that she doesn’t enjoy the freedom of being relaxed in the water that she once had. It is hard to learn to paddle with your hands when you are holding onto Mommy’s wrist. Her concern does have an up-side though. She is now holding on to the edge of the pool by herself and even trying to climb out. Before she was too laid back to grab on to the side. Emily will put her mouth and nose into the water by herself when swimming between the instructor and Mommy. One day she figured out how to spit a fountain of water out of her mouth. Unfortunately, she has not repeated this on other days. It was so cute. Some days the water in her face is frustrating and some days she doesn’t seem to care. Each day we ‘dunk’ Emily once under the water. She doesn’t like it too much and wants hugs from Mommy when she comes up and is trying to figure out what happened.

Emily was lucky one day when Daddy came to class and got to play in the pool. Unfortunately, good things must come to an end and she only has a couple of classes left to go to. Mommy will be on the lookout for other opportunities to go swimming because this has been a good experience and a lot of fun!