Friday, March 25, 2011

Swimming

Last Saturday Smug-Baby had her first official swimming lesson. Smug-Grandma and I took her swimming at the local pool a few times last year starting when she was about 3 1/2 or 4 months old and she LOVED the water. She took it right away and I even thought about joining a pool, but couldn't come up with the cash.

This year, I happened to be flipping through the book of offerings from the local Parks and Recreation and noticed that they had a swimming class for babies 6-18 months. This would be perfect and for $35 I could take her swimming once a week for like 10 weeks!!

I worried that now that she hadn't been in the pool for several months she would suddenly be afraid of the water but as soon as we arrived at the pool my fears were put to rest. She helped my and daddy's hand and walked over to the pool edge and stopped. The instructor had us all sit on the edge of the pool and get the kids feet touching the water and let them get used to the water. Smug-Baby kept trying to jump in!

Then she us parents get into the water and gently show the kids how to put there hands on the edge, turn their bodies and lower themselves into the water. I showed Smug-Baby once and then as soon as I would set her back up on the edge, she would quickly turn herself around and plop back into the water. She hung into the edge of the pool and floated there, happy and content!

Then we floated around a bit with the babies and blew bubbles in the water and the whole time Smug-Baby is trying to paddle around, splashing her arms and kicking her legs. She wanted to take off and swim! She had a blast in the pool but by the end of the class her little lips were turning blue, so we hopped out and got dressed!

I was thinking that perhaps swimming will be her sport of choice! There is less risk of injury than say with soccer or basketball, there is still teams that she can join and she could even go on to be in the Olympics if she wanted to!! The sky is the limit!!

I have decided that whatever it takes, I am going to join, for the summer, the gym that Smug-Grandma belongs to. They have a lovely pool and with Smug-Grandma's help I can take Smug-Baby and Smug-Niece to the pool all summer long! It is going to be expensive and there are less costly pools in the area, but without help I wouldn't really be able to go. The bonus is that with joining for the summer, you get access to the rest of the gym too, so perhaps Smug-Hub and I could find time to workout there too. On the weekends, one of us could take her swimming while the other does a workout and then switch off. Spending the whole day at the pool is one of my fondest childhood memories and I can't wait to create some of those same memories for my sweet swimming girl!

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