For the last two weeks our mornings were monopolized with swimming lessons. Both boys had classes at the same time, Ricky in the Preschool A class and Billy with me in the Parent/Child class. It was fun, but every morning was a bit crazy. After the very first class, one of the little boys in Ricky’s class pointed to him and said, “That’s Ricky the fish!” and his teacher whole-heartedly agreed. He did an excellent job of winning his teacher over by doing what she asked, not being the least bit afraid of the water, and performing for her. Ricky is a character and I don’t think he knows what shy means. One day he repeatedly sang for his teacher the Mickey Mouse Club song (“M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E. Mickey Mouse, donald duck” etc.). His teacher thought he was great and he adored the lessons. Fortunately, the pool is closed for maintenance this week. That made it easy for him to understand why we could not keep going back, otherwise, I’m sure I would have heard about it every day!
Billy thought the water was fun, but when his half hour was over, he was more than ready to get out. He didn’t care for his teacher very much and she caught on to that and kept her distance. Billy’s favorite part of the class was getting to jump into the water from the side like Humpty Dumpty. By the end, I finally got him to jump in without holding onto my fingers. He enjoys the water, but was not born with gills like his brother was.
These are some pictures my sister took one day when she came to watch the fun.
Ricky really enjoyed jumping into the pool. He is the blurry spot with red and orange trunks in these two pictures.
Billy got the hang of splashing and really enjoyed kicking his toes. On the other hand, I still never got used to getting water in my eyes or over the fear of losing a contact and driving home one-eyed!
And the floating. Ricky is getting good at it and floats during his baths in the evenings. Billy never really fell in love with the concept.
This is what I encountered after every swimming lesson–Ricky shivering! He would stand there in the designated pick-up spot and just shiver from top to bottom. I still don’t understand why he would not put his towel around him, but he never did. He would just hold it in front of him and tell me how cold he was until I finally wrapped him up. Goofy kid!
As part of the graduation from their classes, the boys got swim passes to come back to the pool. We’ll just make sure that Kevin is with us. His love of water and swimming pools far surpasses mine!
Funny side note: Ricky has two sets of swimming trunks, the orange and red ones here and a blue pair. Well, the blue pair are what he wore the first day and since I don’t have drawstrings on my swim attire, I never even thought to tie his. My mom and Kevin both came that day to watch and, fortunately, Ricky needed to use the restroom part way through class. Apparently, he was mooning everyone and this gave Kevin a chance to tie the drawstring. Oops! I guess it is a wonder they didn’t come completely off! My mom thought it was cute and funny and since Ricky has no concept of modesty, I’m sure he didn’t care! I learned my lesson though and made sure they were snug every other time he wore them!