Swimming Graduation!

Happy 4th of July! I'm not sure when the last time we've celebrated at home was...I don't think it's been since we've been married! AND I doubt we'll see fireworks this year because our town did them at about 10:30 on Monday night. What in the world? Oh well! Hopefully I'll have pictures of some little boys in red, white, and blue tomorrow!


James started swimming wayyyy back on May 15th. It was supposed to last 4-6 weeks which put us finishing up between June 7-21. Because he missed several days for illness, we wound up swimming a bit longer than planned. We finally finished up yesterday! Woohoo! Mrs. Victoria was sweet enough to let James swim Monday and Tuesday which was longer than we anticipated, but she really wanted to do a few extra things with him. His "graduation" from swimming was two-fold. One, I had to get into the pool with him to learn how to correctly help him. Instead of just snatching him out of the water I learned how to help him get himself out. Second, he had to swim in full clothes.

Monday's swim was great! Anne Margaret and Mrs. Lauren were actually swimming in the slot ahead of us so we watched them and then they watched us. I've mentioned before that AMT and James just play near one another and don't quite get the concept of playing together. That said, they LOVE to be around each other - and each other's daddies! James asks for Mr. CT3 (Lauren doesn't refer to her husband by his first name on her blog so I thought I'd keep him anonymous here, too) and AMT asks for Mr. Eddie.

I got into the water with James and learned how to "hold and launch" him so that I'm not pushing him toward his goal. If he's swimming to the side he needs to make it there on his own, not because I gave him a boost. Because floating is an essential part of the lessons that we're doing, I also learned how to get out of his field of vision so that he'll stop swimming for me and float to breathe if it's too long a swim. James basically thought we were playing the whole time. I hope I remember everything!

Yesterday I had to take James to lessons fully clothed - shirt, shorts, diaper, and shoes. He rarely wears diapers anymore outside of sleeping but I knew that it would fill up much faster than a pull-up or undies so I went with that. I wanted to make it a little harder for him. This part was just so that he could learn how to react in case he falls into the pool one fully clothed. (In case you haven't noticed, our lessons are less about technique and more about water safety!) He did GREAT. It didn't stop him at all. She pushed his head under twice (see the video below) so that he'd have to recover and she took his shirt off and covered his face with it while he was floating twice. She was basically trying to teach him how to problem solve in a non-threatening situation. That way, if he ever is faced with having to save himself, he'll have been taught how. (Funny sidenote about the diaper...When he got out of the pool he immediately pulled off his shorts and said, "What IS this?" and then started pulling off the diaper. It weighed about 15 pounds and he could not figure out WHAT it was! Ha!)

Lauren and Anne Margaret were leaving as I filmed. You'll hear me tell her bye and to have fun.

We are so proud of what he's learned! I suspect I'll have a fish very soon! I think some pool practice is in store in this hot weather!