Swimming Lessons

We just finished our fourth straight week of swimming lessons. They were every morning Monday through Friday Tori's were from 9:45-10:15, and then Alexis's were from 10:30-11:10. This being a very hot summer made it close to torture sitting out there in the hot sun, but it was well worth it. You see, last summer Alexis had a rather tramatic experience. She went swimming with her best friend, and took off her water wings while they were eating lunch. She saw a ball floating in the water and decided to reach in for it. The next thing my friend heard was her daughter screaming "she's drowning! she's drowning!" My friend told me that all she could see were Alexis's big eyes above the water. She had to jump in and get her. Ever since Alexis has had a little bit of fear when it comes to swimming. The reason I know this was so tramatic for her is because we will be driving in the car and randomly she will say "mommy, why do I keep thinking about when I almost drowned that one time? I just can't get it out of my head!". So our goal this summer was to get her to be able to swim by herself, and not be afraid. Well the first session she would not let go of her teacher, and if she thought the teacher was even thinking of letting her go her grip just grew tighter and tighter. One of my friends from high school was actually her teacher and she was really great with her, but day after day I would watch as all the other kids could swim quite far to the teacher unassisted, and I didn't know how that could ever be Alexis. She was just so scared! So even though I hated sitting out in the scorching sun day after day, I decided to sign her up for another session. So the next week started out pretty much like the first, and the first week was over, and there was no change. That Friday night we decided to take her to out gym and work with her. It took a lot of crying and water in the nose, but by the end of the night she was swimming back and forth from Brandon to me. After that day she was a completly different child at swimming lessons. When the teacher was working with someone else, she would practice swimming all by herself along the wall, and when it was her turn she swan by herself to her teacher!! I was sooo proud. When we got her report card on the last day, and there were all checks, she passed! I had tears in my eyes, because it had been such a long process, but it was so rewarding to see her with so much confidence, knowing that she could swim! Out sweet Tori loved swimming lessons. The first few days I had to bribe her with different things to get her to go near the water, but after that she was fine. She absolutly loved her teacher, and we were lucky enough to get him for both sessions. He was so sweet, and his personality was perfect for Tori. The thing that she struggled with was getting her hair wet. She would not get it wet at all, and don't even think about asking her to do a bob. So on that same night we took Alexis to the Pool, we took Tori too, and worked with her on getting her hair wet. By the end of the night she had it mastered, so I thought for sure at swimming lessons the next day she would do it. But, no she still didn't. I culdn't beleive it. The next day her teacher worked with her for a long time, and he got her to go under. Her teacher was so proud of her, as was I =) I was very greatful that they opened up the baby pool for sibling to swim in while waiting for their brothers and sisters to finish swimming lessons. It was truly a lifesaver with Levi. So swimming lessons proved to be a success, and I actually got a pretty nice tan as well =)