Bye-Bye Sea Turtles
Lucas completed this summer’s first session of swimming lessons. (See here http://sarabellae.livejournal.com/49861.html and here http://sarabellae.livejournal.com/50010.html for last summer’s Learning-To-Swim saga, including breakthrough moments.)
This time he was in the Sea Turtle II class, but it looks like he’s been working on Sea Horse skills (unassisted glides, backstroke, diving for objects with eyes open, jumping into deep water, etc.). It was a nice class composed of Lucas and only one other child, Annika, with the same swimming instructor as last year, Miss Natalie. She says that Lucas and Annika are her favorite students, and says that it’s largely because they are so well-behaved in the pool and listen to her instructions. That’s a nice thing to hear!
Annika’s mom took some photos of the kids that she’s promised to share with me. I’ll post one after she does. (Here they are: http://sarabellae.livejournal.com/110974.html)
I think Lucas will do at least one more session of lessons this summer to build on these skills. Next time he’ll be in the Sea Horses class and Daddy will be able to take him after work. Yay! Asher and I can stay home and make dinner, or maybe Asher can go to the gym day care and I can–gasp!–work out! Oh, the possibilities!
When he’s not in class, Lucas swims with great joy and confidence in the 3-foot-deep play pool. He dives for rings, attempts handstands, swims underwater, and practices other skills. Ripley from school, and her brother Rocco, are often at the pool when we are, so it’s cool that they play together and I can talk with Val. It’s a joy to see Lucas so free and happy in the water. Some of my very best memories from childhood involve swimming and playing in my grandmother’s pool. I’ve been grateful that he can swim as well as he can, for I cannot hold Asher outside the pool and assist Lucas in the water at the same time.
As for Asher, he went in the water with me once last week. The pool is heated, so he didn’t protest (unlike at my parents’ pool when I put his feet in the cold water!). I bought a floating baby boat for him, which will work well, I think, when he can sit up a little better. Right now, it seems best to hold him in my arms so that he feels secure and safe.
