Just add water

Makena started her first round of swimming lessons a couple of weeks ago. The teacher's goal was to have her hold her breath underwater, blow bubbles, learn to kick, hold onto the edge of the pool and clear her nose. As expected, she took to the lessons like a fish to water. It was a group lesson and Moms were not in the pool. The only problem that arose was that Mak wasn't very patient at waiting her turn, so if the teacher so much as glanced at her, she threw herself in.

The good thing was that, by the third lesson, she was holding her breath from four to five seconds and coming up smiling. By the end of the session, she was starting to figure out that kicking helped her get to the outreached hands while she was still underwater -- her movements became almost dolphin-like. It was quite fascinating.

The teacher tried to get her used to floating on her back but she always wiggled out of that position, and blowing bubbles wasn't something she understood -- or so I thought. I caught her blowing bubbles in the bathtub this week, and yesterday, when I was giving her another bath, she spent it entirely on her back, submerged in three to four inches of water! She refused to sit up and every time I tried to assist her, she would screech and throw herself backwards, flapping her arms and soaking me (I'll post video, later.)



We also took her on her first boat ride last Memorial Day -- duh, she loved it. The life jacket, not so much.

Needless to say, I've decided on a second round of lessons (1 hour, 10 weekdays in a row) because she is so eager to be "one" with the water and because I desperately need to have her somewhat water safe, sometime soon.


Is -- mother to a fish.