Swimming lessons

Swimming lessons are something new to this family. Well, not entirely new, we tried with Alex maybe three years ago and he just wasn’t ready for them yet. We decided to try again. From vacations to pool parties, we have plenty of water events this year, so it was time to try this again. We took the boys up to Weber State for some private lessons to catch them up to where they need to be. I was hesitant for Weber State because that was one of the reasons the lessons didn’t stick with Alex. The water was always a nice temperature of just above freezing and the A/C in the building was always just below freezing. To a six year old, this was just short of traumatic. Mandy signed them up for lessons up there and assured me the polar bears had moved out and the seals that thought the water was too cold, had been removed also. So last Saturday, we headed up to the pool for lessons. To my, and to a greater extent Alex’s relief, the pool water was warm and the building was muggy. Perfect swimming conditions. The boys were introduced to their instructor and now it was time for the Connor show to begin.

Going into these lessons, we were fully prepared for a meltdown from Connor. New situations and new people are really not his thing of late. When I have tried to teach him on my own in the pool, it has never gone well. Ok, by not well, I mean full blown grade 5 meltdowns almost every time. I learned never try to teach your child how to swim in a public/hotel pool. However, this day he was all over this, like Nemo in a fish tank. (Sorry best analogy I could come up with. It’s early and I’m only one cup of coffee into the day).  Mandy and I both relaxed once we knew there would be no meltdowns. Well, he did try to swallow most of the pool but past that it went well. At least we thought it was. We came to notice the instructor laughing almost every time Connor and he went off on their own. Then Alex started laughing along with them when all three of them were together. We started to pay more attention to what was being said instead of the actual swimming.

As Connor was about to jump back in the pool, “Just so you know my eyes get red.” Great information. While, the instructor was trying to teach them to float on their backs, “I need to get back to the surface to swim.” Hmmmm. As he was trying to demonstrate the backstroke motion, “Hold on I have a joke to tell you.” (Couldn’t hear the joke but Alex and the instructor thought it was funny).  There was one moment when Connor was floating on his back and had a mini-panic attack, the reason; “The natural resource of water is getting in my eyes. Get it out.” The poor instructor had to compose himself more than once. At this point other instructors were listening in and getting a good chuckle.

Lessons went awesome. Both of them were natural fish in the water. The instructor wanted to make sure when we signed up for more private lessons to ask for him. I think he enjoyed it more than the boys did. On the way home I asked both of them how they like swimming lessons. Alex, “Awesome! When do we go back?” Connor, “Awesome! It was a little bit wet though.”

Sigh.