Swimming!

Let's jump in again . . . literally.  I'm thinking of changing the "littles" names to the "fishes".  Little man is constantly asking, "We go swimming?  We go swimming?"

I first took them swimming at the YMCA about a month ago after we had recovered from our plague.  Flannery wasn't there, which I deeply regretted as soon as we hit the water.  I thought I'd be OK since I had Cayla (and I think Collin . . . ) with me and the YMCA has a zero entry pool.  I quickly realized how people can drown in a bucket of water.  I don't think the littles had been swimming before; they had no idea how to move through the water.  They fell over in waist-deep water and couldn't get up.  When they fell over in chest-deep water we had to fish them out because they didn't automatically stand up but flailed around like a fish out of water:)  Little man would walk deeper and deeper until his head was submerged without even hesitating.  Cayla was helpful as we held them in the deeper water, but kept forgetting to make sure their faces were above the water . . .oy vey!  Not only was that a problem because of the breathing air thing, but getting water on one's face was the greatest torture ever.  Little lady cried and cried and rubbed at her face and little man clawed at his face, rubbing his eyes (until they were filled with more water than had he just left them alone).  Needless to say, we didn't stay long that first time and after spending an eternity in the locker room showering and lotioning and chasing and dressing I swore that I was never doing this again - at least not without Flan:)  Man, do I appreciate those 10 year-old twins who can do the locker room all by themselves (mostly).

But, of course we went back.  The littles demanded it.  And, I knew it would get better -at least the swimming part - the locker room still slays me:)  And, of course we went without Flan.  And it did get better.  They started jumping in (while holding both my hands) and tolerating wet faces.  They released their death grip on me and little man constantly tried to jump out of my arms in water over his head.  Apparently he figured out how to hold his breath.  We never remember to bring water toys or balls, so all was fine as long as no one else brought any.  Any toy little man sees is HIS.  Some toy owners were more empathetic than others.

Our big breakthrough came when we stayed at a hotel with a pool last weekend.  Isn't that when swimming breakthroughs always happen?  Out of the blue, little lady decided that not only was it OK to get her face wet, she wanted to go underwater.  She then spent the next half hour holding her nose and, well, going underwater - for increasing longer and longer amounts of time.  Another boy befriended little man - a boy who just jumped in the water without holding anyone's hands.  All of a sudden, here comes little man flying into the water without holding my hands.  And, I mean flying.  That kid can jump . . . far . . . no matter how far away from the edge I stood, he still managed to land on top of me.  We are STILL working on jumping into the water in front of me.  I promise I'll fish you out, kid.  Not to be usurped, little lady then decided that she wanted to jump in the water, without my hands, and without me catching her.  And, there she goes.

Observing their swimming is like watching a movie on fast forward.  We went swimming today, after not going yesterday (oh . . . the drama yesterday . . . ).  Little lady decided she wanted to "swim"  "for real!!!!" and spend most the time submerging herself and flinging her arms and legs in all directions.  Little man found that if he stood on his tippy tippy toes and tilted his head up he could keep his nose above water and make it to the circle part of the pool.  I kept fishing him out when water splashed above his head and he kept demanding, "put me down!".  I swear these kids are going to be swimming before summer.

And, that's that.  More than you ever wanted to know about their swimming skills.