Swimming Lessons '09

The girls both started swimming lessons this week. We are taking them at the same place with the same teacher that we did last year. Mrs. Jayne is amazing! She is so good with them. This is Courtney's first year, and she's doing good. We have to sit and wait/watch Lindsey for an hour before it is her turn. Luckily she has a little friend to play with. She borrowed these glasses from her today and this picture turned out so cute! Miss Hollywood for sure! She has enough drama and entertainment for Hollywood! Ha! This is what she spends most of the time doing...trying to join Lindsey's class! Mrs. Jayne is fine with it. Courtney usually just sits on the edge and puts her feet in the water and stays there. So, it keeps her (and I) happy. It is hard to do for an hour!

Here is Lindsey doing a FANTASTIC job floating in the water.

However, this is the face I have seen more often than not with swimming lessons this week!

Bless her heart. She has just been pretty much scared. I hate to even type that, but I think that is the best way to describe it. The first day she was ok. The second day she was worse and cried, threw a fit, wanted to wipe her face off, said the water was hurting her eyes, etc. So I let her wipe her face and when I said to get back in...she didn't want to. She was screaming 4 year old that I had to literally pick up and hand to the teacher kicking and screaming. EVERYONE at the pool looking...nice! She should have been embarrassed, but I don't think she cared at that point! I could analyze this and type out all of the thoughts and feelings I've had, but I will spare you. I know that things will get better. They did last year. I know that she will love swimming.(she will have to in our family!) I know that she is my timid child and doesn't do well with uncomfortable situations (who does?). Therefore, I'm not truly worried, but just wish for her sake she didn't feel like this about swimming and the water.

Notice where Lindsey is and notice where the other children are......they had jumped off the side and had to swim to the other (with their teacher right there in the water of course) and had the option to stay in the pool or sit out. Hmmmm..........

Then it was Courtney's turn. Lindsey had such a bad lesson (didn't do hardly anything she was asked to do) that Mrs. Jayne told her to stay in the water and do the class that Courtney was doing. I was very thankful and glad that she had that idea. Lindsey did do better in the smaller class size for sure. She didn't do everything just right, but better. So I explained to her that if she would do it right the first time she wouldn't have to do the 2nd class. She had asked me why she had to, so it worked as some motivation. Today Mrs. Jayne just had her do some basics at the beginning of Courtney's class and then get out. Maybe tomorrow she will "graduate" from Courtney's class and just do the big kid one! We'll see. Here are my fish!

From the beginning of this post I said that Courtney has a hard time waiting her turn. She is always asking if she can do Lindsey's class, can she get in, etc. You would think when it was finally her turn she would be JUMPING in the water. NOPE! As soon as her class starts she starts asking me if she can get out! WHAT?!?!? Today she actually cried (as Lindsey had also). This is what Mrs. Jayne does with the younger kiddos that cry. In L's class, she just tells them that they can't cry because that scares the fish. Ha! I've never heard a kid tell her there are no fish in the water! It works, so hey...here is Courtney latched on to Mrs. Jayne.

She got over that fairly quickly and made friends with this other girl in her class. She enjoys being in the water, but is unsure at times. Very typical to me of her age.

This is Courtney's favorite thing to do at swimming lessons! The back float! She literally just lays there! It is funny!