John - A Certified Guppy!

Today was the last day of our 2 week/every day swim lessons. Phew! Traveling out to Katy every day for 2 weeks for a 30 minute swim lesson is annoying but it was worth it to see John transform from a timid water baby to a little guppy, capable of swimming on his back independently and diving for rings!

There were four kids in his class and all of us moms were commenting today that these kids looked like completely different children compared to even earlier this week! There were lots of tears and screaming earlier in the week.

I think Tuesday was a low point when I took John to swim class and we came to the point where I had to remove his t-shirt for him to enter the pool area (The parents sit behind a two-way mirror so the kids aren't distracted during the lesson). He had been whimpering that he didn't want to go to swim lessons but when I tried to remove his t-shirt the whimper turned into a full blown hysterical tantrum. He threw himself on the ground, kicked wildly, and almost kicked my dress up over my head. I was trying to keep him from banging his head on the concrete floor. So I kneeled down and  finally got the shirt off then John tried to octopus his appendages around me. A guy who worked there finally came over and literally peeled my child off me and took him to his teacher. Man, I was sweaty and totally embarassed but I had to laugh at the ordeal because if you would've seen John the day before (Memorial Day) you would wonder what in the world this freak out was all about? The day before he had been happily swimming about three feet between Kyle and I and Debbie and Papaw, kicking his legs, going under water, blowing bubbles. It was a totally different child. I was confused by the display of crazy but after his 2 minute panic attack he was doing his thing in there.

What a difference 4 days makes. Here are pictures from today. The moms got to go inside the pool area and take pictures and, boy, those kids were showing off all their skills for the mommies. It was so cute!

Kicking with the barbells

That's John going under!

Swam across the width of the pool with the help of Mr. Travis

John's favorite....The Mat Ride! (John's on the far right)

And a video of John floating by himself! Watch for the teacher to show his hands above the water



I didn't catch a video of the grand finale but Mr. Travis threw each kid into the water and they had to turn over on their back and float with as little assistance as possible. 2 of the kids did it solo, John needed a little help turning but with some practice at the pool I think we can get the whole sequence down soon. Very exciting! On to the Goldfish level.....