Swimming Lessons

We started swimming lessons at Emler's Swim School on June 10th. We went once a week for 11 weeks. The classes were 30 minutes each. I am SO glad we started this because Olivia really loves the water. Carolyn & Sophia signed up for the same class as us so it was nice to have friends there. The first few classes were a little rough. I think the second and third were the worst. Olivia just does not like being told what to do and when to do it and so the structure was difficult for her. She didn't like having to quit one activity to switch to another and so she would just refuse some of the activities. I wasn't really embarrassed about it because there were 5 other babies in our class and they all had their moments. The goal by the end of the 11 weeks was for her to swim "through" the water for 10 seconds. She did great on the breath control and can be underwater for 10 seconds but she does not swim through the water. When she goes under I have to hold onto her arms and pull her through the water for 10 seconds. She's not great at kicking or staying horizontal so that is what we are going to work on this fall. I wanted to wait until closer to the end of the lessons before I had anyone come take pictures so my mom came on Aug 5th and took pictures and it just happened to be her BEST class so it was perfect. My mom had to wear a hat and sunglasses so Olivia wouldn't see her and she got a lot of good pictures. I took these first 3 pics of her looking fabulous before class started.

This is her in her "noodle boat." I think this activity is called the ball chase and they are supposed to kick to move themselves toward the balls. There were many classes where she refused to even get into the noodle boat and even when she did get in it she rarely kicked to try to get any balls. She would just reach and whine for them. So its funny that the day my mom came to take pictures she is doing exactly what she is supposed to do :)

After the ball chase they stay in their noodle boats and we sing Motor Boat and swish them around in circles. She always liked that.

She latched on to this Dora doll and I think it helped her to be in such a great mood and to participate in all of the activities because her "baby" was also doing them.

This is her one-on-one time with Miss Keely where she swims from her to me underwater. The first class we started at 1 second and we increased her breath control by one second every week. She holds her and then we say "Ready GO!" and that is her cue that she is fixing to go under. Ready Go has become one of her favorite things to say.

swimming...

swimming...

YAY!!!

sitting on the mat with Sophia AND sharing Dora :)

These are the barbells and she is NOT a fan of these and would barely ever let me put them under her arms. But here she is cool as a cucumber swimming with her barbells.

she even kicked and moved through the water!

here we are singing a song

They are supposed to lay back on our shoulder to try to get them to float on their back. I think she only did this during 2 classes. Which is strange because in the pool at the lake house she LOVES floating on her back. I don't think any of the babies in our class liked this activity.

we are singing another song and she is waving at one of the other kids dads. i think it may have been because he looked like Johnnie. AND he was happy for us that she was doing such a great job and so he kept on saying "Good job Olivia!"

singing a song about kicking

this is all the kids sitting on Mr. Duck. It is a big yellow mat shaped like a duck and they all sit on it and we go in a circle and sing a song and at the end we say Ready Go and they are supposed to lean forward and fall into the water and swim to us for however many seconds they are up to that week.

giving Benjamin a high five because they both did GREAT swimming off of Mr. Duck!

toward the end of class each kid takes turns sitting on this green mat and we sing the bye bye song and then they are supposed to jump into the water and swim to us again

after she jumped off the mat...

see how she stays vertical?

My mom was behind her in this activity so she couldn't get a good picture of the beginning. All the kids sit up on the side of the pool and we sing Humpty Dumpty and at the end we say Ready Go and they are supposed to jump in and swim to us.

This is after she jumped in

At the very end of class the kids get to slide down the little slide into the pool and swim to us.

I am SOOOO proud of my little fish! Her last summer swim class was Aug 19th and we decided to sign her up for the fall session which started Aug 24th. The Arlington location only has an outdoor pool so they don't offer classes in the fall so we go to the Southlake location. She has been to 3 classes there so far and it has not been the best experience. Around the time of the first class her behavior changed and she has been challenging me to say the least. She has become really defiant and tells me NO when I ask her to do something or not to do something. She sometimes hits me, hits Johnnie, hits her dolls, and other uncool things like that. She throws huge fits about sitting in highchairs whether its the one at home or in a restaurant. She still will throw fits most of the time when I'm changing her diaper. It is so exhausting. Don't think I just sit back and watch this behavior. I threaten her, spank her, put her in time out, etc... but she isn't old enough to understand certain things so discipline is hard at this point. I can't tell her that if she's really good then she'll get to do this or that or if she doesn't stop doing this or that then she won't get to watch tv or that I'm going to take her toys away because she's not old enough to comprehend that type of discipline. So I'm left with my mean mommy looks, my mean mommy voice, spanking her bottom and putting her in time out which is just setting her down in a corner and walking away while she screams and gets up and runs after me over and over and over :) I am sure it is a phase and we are for sure going to get through it. In our fall swim class there are only 3 babies - Olivia (18 mos), Sophia (17 mos), and Avery (16 mos). The first class was pretty rough for Olivia as far as her attitude but she swam well when she was supposed to. There were times though when she would just scream and tell me no and she even hit me in the face. Having Carolyn there was nice because she knows me, knows Olivia, and knows that this behavior is NOT normal and that Olivia really is a sweet child and that I am a good mom. But the new swim teacher and the other mom don't know us and I felt like they thought I had no control over my child and that she was a little monster. We got through the first class though and all I could hope was that next week would be better. Boy was I WRONG. Carolyn wasn't feeling well and so her and Sophia weren't there. Olivia had the worst attitude and didn't want to do ANY of the activities and she screamed bloody murder on and off through the entire 30 minute class. I was so embarrassed but was not going to give up so I just kept trying to calm her down. It was the worst experience I've had as a parent because I didn't really know what to do. I paid good money for these swim lessons so I was not about to quit and just take her out of the pool and leave because I think at that point it may have been what Olivia wanted and I wasn't going to give in to her. But on the other hand, the other parent had also paid good money for swim lessons and my kid was being a HUGE distraction and possibly hindering her kid. So I really hoped that the third class would be better than the second and it was! Carolyn & Sophia weren't there again so it was just Olivia and Avery and I went ahead and apologized in advance for any behavioral issues and let everyone know we were working on it. Olivia had a couple of outbursts but overall she did much better and had a lot of fun. OH - but it was my first experience with her going poop while we were in the pool. I could see it in her face so we immediately got out and I went to change her. Emler's requires them to wear 2 reusable swim diapers instead of wearing disposables. Thank goodness the manager there was able to help me since I couldn't just throw away the dirty one. She took it and rinsed it out for me and brought it back in a plastic bag. So Olivia still had the clean one to put back on and back in the pool we went. It had never even crossed my mind what I would do with a dirty reusable swim diaper while my kid was standing there shivering waiting for me to put the clean one back on so we could get back in the pool. Anyway, I was very pleased with Olivia's behavior and told her over and over what a good girl she was and how proud of her I was so I hope she understood and will be as good if not better in the morning for class #4. This fall session is 19 wks long so we will be going all the way into January so I'm hoping as her behavior improves so will her swimmin skillz!