Thursday, July 15, 2010

A Swimmer is Born


I think it started with our trip to Minnesota when we visited the hotel pool four times in two days. Before that, the kids have been pretty nonchalant about the water. But now, Alexa loves it!



We've had a pass to the YMCA for a while now, but we've never gone swimming. I went with my mom and Jared on the 8th, and Alexa totally surprised me with how much progress she made in such little time. After ten minutes of having me hold her in the water, she wanted to jump from the ledge, just as she had done in Minnesota.


Poor Jared has inherited my poor circulation, I think. It takes me a long time to get used to the temperature of the water, although after having the kids, I find my body temperature seems to have changed. The poor kid was shivering pretty bad, and he soon wanted to be bundled up in the towel and watch from the side. He did brave the water two more time before we leftj. He really wants to swim, too, though, so I hope he can learn to get used to cooler water. That's the one reason I don't know how to swim that well.


At one point, I told Alexa that even if I let go of her, she had a life vest on, so she wouldn't go under the water. To my surprise, she asked me to let go of her. I did, and soon she kept pushing my hand away from her and wanting to "swim" on her own. She is the one who is most cautious, too, so I was impressed by her tenacity. I wasn't originally going to sign them up for swim lessons because they didn't want them, but at this YMCA, they'd let me be in the pool with them. Alexa said she'd really like that, so we'll see.

It'll be interesting to see if she grows up to really love swimming.

2 comments:

Stephanie said...

I am loving seeing my children learn how to swim this year on their own. Such a wondrous thing.

Lynn B said...

This is great, Chris! I recently found this article that I LOVED - it's called "Unswimming"! :) http://www.examiner.com/x-28900-Mankato-Homeschooling-Examiner~y2010m7d8-Unswimming
I did lots of this as a child and eventually learned to swim, too :) Good fun!