Big Little Swimmer

Hunter has had swim lessons for the past two weeks at 4:30 Monday-Thursday, and y'all, I couldn't be happier that they are over.  He did awesome this year, but it is exhausting sitting in the scorching heat for 30 minutes and then getting home to start making dinner at 5:30.  I don't know what I was thinking.  Oh, yes I do, I'm a working mom.  Not that I'm a full time working mom.  I can't imagine working an 8 hour day and then sitting in the heat at 6:00 pm everyday.  In my nice work clothes...well, if you call scrubs nice work clothes.

Anyway.

Swim lessons are over now, and Hunter did great.  And I made a vow to Ms. Patti that I'd get Hunter in the pool without a life jacket as much as possible this summer.  She makes all the parents who don't put their kids in the pool a single day after swim lessons from one year to the next make that promise.  Not really, but I'm sure she curses all of us under her breath for making her job so stinking difficult.

Hunter did awesome after the first couple of days, regardless of my lack of non-life jacket water time enforcement over the past year.

Here he is on the dreaded kickboard...

He has a really hard time with kickboard drills.  It's difficult for him to kick both legs.  That left one kind of lags down under the water.

Swimming to Ms. Patti on day 3 (DAY THREE!!!)...

She was so proud of him. She hugged him when he got to her in the middle of the pool and mouthed, "I'm so proud of him!" to me.

Taking a breather on the wall...

Sometimes he gasps for air after a swim drill and you can see how relieved he is to have a break.  Watching him in swim lessons makes me so appreciative of his obedience and gentle spirit.  He is such a sweet boy.

Getting a pep talk on the wall before he swims back to the other side...

And one more where he doesn't give up at the end:)...

Here Ms. Patti is doing a demonstration of something...

I can't remember what, but I thought that was a cute picture of the whole class.  They were such a sweet group of kids, and I really enjoyed getting to know the parents this year.

He did so well swimming this year, that he got to work on the backstroke for the last 2 days...

Since the picture isn't enough, of course I have a video of it...

Teaching him to use his arms...

And a video of it...

And finally today, on the last day, he put everything together...

He did a little better on the second try...

There were a couple of times over the past two weeks where Hunter would just stand there and stare at the water when it was his turn, because he was too scared to get started.  Ms. Patti was so patient and would wait for what seemed like an ETERNITY and eventually say, "What's making you nervous about this one?" or "You can do this.  This is the same thing you just did."  He'd just stand completely still and not really answer, and then finally force his little legs to push off of the step into the water.  I know the feeling.  It reminded me so much of when I cheered growing up and would stand there absolutely frozen when it was my turn to do a standing backhandspring (is that one word?).  If I was running, I was fine, but just having to go from a standing position completely freaked me out.  So it made me even more proud of him when he finally pushed off into the water.  I knew how much bravery that took for a little 5 year old!

Can't wait to swim together this summer!