Swimming Lessons

The past few weeks the boys have been taking swimming lessons. I was really nervous because they really don't like the water...unless they're just floating around. But, they really need to learn to swim, even if we didn't have a pool, all of their friends do. Besides, it's a very important skill to know. Well, this is how the first part went...really up until yesterday. There were tears, fighting, debates and all in all, some really bummed out little boys. But we persevered. And I'm so glad I did.

Today we had THIS!! The boys were jumping in! 2 days ago Andrew couldn't even jump off the side. He would try....you could see he was willing to try, but when he would say "ribbit" and jump, he wouldn't go in! One time he even just landed on his bum on the side of the pool. It was pretty funny...so Caitlin ( one of the teachers) got out and as he jumped, she gave him a little help. He came up with a look of "what happened!?" This isn't the first time he's been thrown in this summer. While playing at a friends house, Ryan didn't know he didn't know how to swim and picked him up and jumped in with him. Once he realized he didn't know how to swim he swam around the pool with him. When I asked Andrew if he liked having Ryan throw him in. He said he didn't know who threw him in, Ryan was just there when he came up. Just all the more reason this boy needs learn to swim! He's really enjoying it now and says his favorite thing to do is kicking and big arms at the same time. WOW!!! just a few days ago he wouldn't even put his face in. He did like to remind the teachers though that if they said 3 more times, he would count for them....2 more right?! Now 1 more right? He doesn't really like to jump in, but hey, I'll take what I can get!

Benjamin's become a little water bug! After some tears this week, he now LOVES to jump in and swim under water. Just a few days ago he was screaming that he wanted to sit on the stairs. He would do what they asked him to do, but cry the whole time. He was really happy when they moved Andrew into his class. I think it helped both of them. By the time the 2 weeks was over, half the class had quit so there were 3 kids and 4 teachers. The boys loved the one on one attention and I really think that's what's helped them to succeed to fast!
Ben enjoys jumping in but likes someone to stand behind him on the edge...you can see Caitlin "helping" him. What makes me laugh is that he swims straight up and down, today we saw a smile on his face when he started to come up instead of tears. Then, after swimming lessons when we went swimming in our pool Ben was doing

BOMBS AWAY BENJAMIN!!!

Then he would swim to the side. He just kept swimming to me and back to the wall. I then noticed his eyes were open when he would go under. I got on my goggles and went under with him and it was pure joy on his face!

Thank you Miss Terry and Caitlin and Big Ben and Cody! We love you! We will always remember who taught the boys to enjoy the water! We look forward to swimming with you all again soon!