Swimming

Since we are surrounded by water here in Florida, R and I found it increasingly necessary that Cman learn how to swim as soon as possible (in other words NOW). Seeing as how I have a child that isn't too adventurous and is scared of all things new, I thought, what better activity to schedule him in than swimming lessons every week? That way he can scream and cry and cling on to us and we can pay money for this to go on for 9 weeks in a row...Yippee!! Yes, I don't know what I was thinking either. I should've listened to Meredith is all I can say. Cristy brought Sophie to the classes too, but (unlike me) she's actually getting her money's worth.

Cman has gone to two classes so far. The first one went better than the second one (I guess he knew what he was in for the second time around). It's a mommy-and-me class, but R got in the pool with him both times. For the first class all the toddlers and their parents got in a little circle and played games and sang songs and passed toys around. Then just when they had let their guards down, the underwater diving began (from DAY 1! These people don't mess around). R put Chris underwater and I totally missed the Kodak moment because I was not expecting that to happen (I'm guessing Cman wasn't either). He didn't cry or freak out though (oddly enough); I guess he was too shocked to know what to do. After that, they put the toddlers on the ledge and played the humpty dumpty sat on the wall game where they pull them off the ledge and under the water towards the parent (it's not as bad as it sounds..see video below). Chris didn't like that one too much, but he tolerated it a couple of times. Not bad for the first class!

The second class was last Wednesday and boy was he crabby. It didn't help that he had only had one nap that day, in fact I think that's the reason why the second class didn't go that well. A tired, cranky baby is no fun in the water. For this class they had set up a little table inside the water so that the little kids could walk on it or climb on the rail. All the kids took to it quite quickly except for well...guess who. Did you ever hear that song on Sesame Street that went "one of these things is not like the others" (or something like that)? Well, yeah, these pictures remind me of that song...for some reason.

Oh well, at least Sophie's enjoying the classes (she throws herself underwater as often as possible...whether Cristy's ready for it or not). To hear me tell it, you'd think the class is a total waste of time for Chris, but it really isn't. He goes underwater alot and doesn't complain about it too much. I'm sure he's getting something out of them.