Swim Time!

Emily just completed 8 days of swimming lessons.  She went Monday-Thursday for two weeks, 30 minutes each lesson.  She was very excited to start that first day...

until another boy showed up crying.  I told her as we were walking in from the car (he and his mom had already passed us) that even if other kids were crying and scared, she didn't have to be scared because she LOVES to swim.  Sure enough, we got in the backyard and she was hanging on to me and not wanting to get in the water without me.  Once the teacher, Mrs. Campbell, came over and invited her in (noting Ariel on her swimsuit and talking to her about princesses) though there was no looking back.

There were two boys in her class.

Adam, 4 1/2 with dark hair, cried the whole first lesson.  Reed, 3 1/2 with blonde hair, was totally fine until Adam's cries about not wanting to go under started to get in his head around minute 15.

But, Emily was very thrilled to be in the water and didn't want to get out when the time came.

As the days went on, Emily got better and better.  She is a real swimmer now!  Mrs. Campbell was very impressed with her confidence in the water, especially when Emily threw in her own "water ballet" (as Mrs. Campbell called it) and would twirl in the water as she swam.  

She was always the first to want to try something new...

which totally impressed her baby brother.

She was so excited to go every day and did a great job listening and participating, using up every last millisecond in the pool.

And she was the expert at back floating and the (modified) backstroke.  The boys couldn't really understand how she did it!

At the end of each lesson they had one minute of play time and by the last day, Reed picked Cinderella out and brought it over to Emily.  :)

Then, they each got to have one special treasure for being super swimmers during those two weeks.

Emily was very pleased with her yellow turtle squirter.

At the end of each lesson and on that last day, Emily would stand in the driveway and wave good-bye to all of her friends as they left.  When she waved good-bye that last day though, Reed replied "bye, Princess Emily!!"  It was really cute because that is how Mrs. Campbell referred to her most of the time and it stuck.  Wish we still had more swim with that group!  What next?  We'll see...

For family, and anyone else interested, I am including some videos that I took over the 8 days.

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