July 2, 2013

Wow, how the last few months have flown by!  It was a cool damp spring mostly, and we've had a decent amount of rain and several storms in June.  I can't believe it is already July!

Ben has been taking swimming lessons since early April.  He had a rough first morning, having gone with Daddy.  I hear he cried and found a way out of the lesson by convincing Daddy he had to go the bathroom.  I took him to the second lesson, and he seemed like he would be fine...that is until he crossed the threshold into the pool area and looked at me as tears welled up in his eyes.  I told him I would be closeby, until the instructor said it would be better if he couldn't see me.  After a little while, he settled down and actually had a good lesson.  He's taken an 8 day fast track and now takes weekly lessons on Tuesday mornings at 9am.  He is doing great and enjoys going to his lessons.  A couple of weeks ago though he did worry about having to do the "roll over", saying he didn't want to do it.  That's where he has to be treading water and then roll over to his back and keep his head above water in the process.  Sometimes he sinks down and I think might get water in his nose.  They practice it each week, and he's definitely get better at the rollover and can do superman hands and scooper arms for short distances.  The problem is that he doesn't transfer much that he's learned to the pool at home. 

But oh how he loves going to the pool!  Unfortunaetly, opening day on Memorial Day weekend was after a cool and wet week, with the morning itself being quite cool.  Many people joined the parade in regular clothes and jackets.  The weather didn't put a damper on  Ben's excitement, which we'd been helping him build for weeks. He joined the parade in his swim trunks and on his bicycle, and rode all the way to the pool.  He had little interest in the firetruck, because he wanted to enter the pool as soon as the gates opened at 10am.  He was the first person into the cold pool water and didn't seem phased by it.  In fact, he looked estatic, smiling and laughing!  I was the only adult in the pool with him, and thankfully didn't have to get myself totally submerged.  Ben had fun for about 15 minutes, at which time I think he realized how terribly cold he'd gotten.  He spent the next 15-30 minute wrapped in his towel in fetal position in Daddy's lap, while Becca splashed around in the shallow end.  Ben recovered from the first day and has loved going to the pool at every opportunity ever since.  The water is of course a lot warmer now, but definitely had a chill in it through the first half of June!  Ben loves diving for his torpedos, going down the slide, and lately he's loved jumping off the side in the "deep end" (5ft), with me there to help him make it back to the side or to help him out of the water.  He does well under the water swimming, which he seems to love moving around under water, he has a hard time keeping his head above water though.  And of course, he's not using the "strokes" he's learning in swim class.

Becca loves the pool too, and lately has insisted on going to Ben's swimming lessons to watch (and avoid going to school first thing in the morning).  She is wearing Henry's old orange floatie int he pool, and that allows her to kick around wherever she wants.  She likes to jump in from the top step and is starting to enjoy jumping in while holding my hands.  Otherwise, she kinda climbs in from the side and thinks that's jumping.

Becca is still very independent and likes to dress herself, especially refusing help from Daddy and only letting Mommy help once she's realized she needs it.  The other night, when putting on her big girl underwear, she asked once she got started if it was backwards by simply saying "backwards?" ....and it was, which is not uncommon.  Now she's using a phrase "is this backwards?".