Swimming Sessons
August 21, 2010 by Lisa Beth
Wyatt has been taking swimming lessons all summer – he calls them swimming sessons. ”L”s are tough. When we started out the summer, Wyatt LOVED the idea of pools and swimming, but once he got around the water he was terrified. I guess terrified if a strong word to use, he didn’t burst into tears and run screaming from the water, but he did grasp the person inthe water with him until they had black and blue marks on their arms.
And forget getting his hair wet. This is the child who cried when I washed his hair in the bath tub. I finally decided that at four and a half years old we had waited way too long to get this child into swimming lessons.
The first two or three weeks were tough to watch. The swim instructor nearly lost her swim suit when she was taking Wyatt off the wall each time. He refused to let go of her – and back float? FORGET IT. Gradually, over time, he started getting more and more comfortable in the water. By the fourth week or so, he was flipping over onto his back (with help) and using his hands to doggy paddle instead of to cling for dear life to the instructor.
The other day, I watched him swim PAST the other kids in his class ( with the bubbles of course) – when he got to the other side of the pool, through the window I saw him scream “I WON!” Ah, the Hustad competitiveness shines once again.
**NOTE – I brought Wyatt to his last swimming lesson of the year fully prepared with my camera to capture some shots of him swimming. When we arrived, I realized that the prior week was his last week and we had missed registering him for the next session, which was the one we were about to attend. I need this baby out of me soon so I can regain some brain function.
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