Sea Startled

Tuesday was Shay’s second swimming lesson. However, let me back up to actually describe her first one. Of the 6 parents and kids in the group class, Shay was the only girl and Jeff was the only dad there. The rest were moms with their toddler sons. Anyway, Shay eagerly got into the pool and was happy as a clam for the first 5 minutes. Upon the teacher’s instructions of having the kids hold onto the side of the pool, she had a breakdown once she realized Daddy was letting go of her at which point she began crying and trying to get out of the pool – which she proceeded to do for the remaining 25 minutes of class. At one point, the instructor had the kids sit on the edge of the pool and had the parents pull them into the water by their wrists, causing them to briefly go underwater before bobbing up to the surface. Shay did not like this one bit. More crying and insisting, “I want to get out now!"

Thankfully, the instructor was very calm as were the other parents saying that the toddlers almost always react that way the first few lessons but that they eventually learn. I’m glad Jeff is so good with Shay and stays calm despite her freaking out. Not sure if I would have been able to handle it as well. The instructor actually told Jeff that it is harder for moms not to react to their babies being upset. Leave it to our daughter, despite all of the dramatics, to loudly declare, “I like swimming!” just minutes after the lesson ended prompting a mock-exasperated, “Well ya could’ve fooled me!” from Jeff and laughter from the other parents.

The second lesson went a little better but, from what Jeff tells me, still involved a lot of crying and “I want to get out’s” from Shay. We’ve been working on telling her how great it is that she can go underwater which always illicits a proud, “I close eyes under water!” response. Hopefully 3rd lesson’s the charm!

Here’s a pic of our little aquatic drama queen all ready to go before her first lesson: