Swim Lessons

Ryan finished his first swim lessons last week - I think it was the longest 8 days of his life! He has some issues with getting his head wet so once they got into that part, he wanted out! But he saw it through (with a few harmless threats to encourage him) and in the end, he did learn a few things. He seems a bit more at ease in the big pool now, and will even cross the dreaded 'black line' as seen in the picture below. Here he is with his kick board (I think he is walking) and hanging onto the wall as the rest of class prepares to swim to the instructors. At least they were very patient and understanding of him!

At the end of the last class, the kids got to jump off the diving board into the deep end, and be helped along by the instructors. Since the very mention of this had him shaking in his shoes a few days prior, I figured there was no way he'd even think about it. But there is something to be said for peer pressure in this case because he got right in line with the rest of the class. Of course, once on the dive it took a few minutes to coax him to the end and then I could really see him shaking - partly because he was freezing and the other part from fear. He didn't jump but did allow the teacher to lower him into the water. He even went back for a second go around and the kid lowered him halfway down then let him loose. I think as scared as he was, he did enjoy himself and we are very proud of him that he got that far!

Here's a picture of Ryan and his best buddy Andrew, at the end of swim lessons. Ryan recently told me that he and Andrew are brothers because they sometimes think the same things!