"Swimming"

Recently, we (and by "we" I mean monkey with me along for the ride) delved into the wet & wild world of (cue dramatic music dum dum dummmmm!) swim lessons. Well, let's just say the first day I got wetter than monkey (and I wasn't in the pool). He got in and promptly clawed his way out of the pool and climbed all over me soaking me in the process. The next day wasn't much better--in fact he wouldn't get in. I finally handed over my stiff as a board child to the instructor for a "swim" (they carry the kids out and back for a quick "swim"). He wouldn't even look at her--I could see him thinking, "If I don't see her then I'm not here and this is not happening!" I felt horrible and considered pulling him out of the class since he didn't seem to be ready but in a few days he got a bit better.

Monkey's really working on his negotiating skills (he's almost three) so we had a long talk one night that if he would simply sit on the steps for the whole lesson and play in the water I wouldn't make him go out for "swims". That seemed to work so the next day (as we discussed the same thing at length that morning at breakfast, in the car, getting changed at the pool . . .) he finally got in and sat on the steps the entire day and by the end was playing games a bit and even splashing (one hand at first and two minutes before it was time to get out he had both going).

The whole set of lessons was every day for nine days. Day seven we finally had a breakthrough. He actually enjoyed going on a "swim" and was loving it. Day eight he asked to go for a swim and even had to wait his turn to go--this was an AMAZING turnaround. Unfortunately, one of the instructors took this as a good sign that he was ready to go underwater . . . needless to say he was not ready and after that he decided he didn't want to go back to the pool - ever. We only had one day left so we had many discussions that night about how he wouldn't have to go underwater again the next day, etc. I promised him I would talk to the swim teachers and blah blah blah. So the next morning he was finally ready to go again . . . and there was a thunderstorm so class was canceled. Now we can't go back until the end of August. Let's hope he'll be over it by then!









After the "bob"