Week 5 Swim Lessons - NO Tears

Tommy has come a long way in his swim lessons since that first day we walked into the noisy bubble where he proceeded to cry for the entire time we waited to go in the pool, through the entire class, and until we walked out of the place.  I was assured by several people, including the instructor, that it would get better.  And it did - the first 2 weeks were very challenging - with tears throughout.  The 3rd week, it was only for about half the class, and for weeks 4 and 5, NO TEARS at all!  Tommy was all smiles and giggles both times when we arrived.  Of course, it might help that we tell him that his friend Colin is already there and he gets happy and excited!  Though I do think the fact that it was much quieter in the bubble since there was no swim practice also helped matters.  But I also think Tommy has gotten used to the whole pool thing, which Colin's mommy Kelly told us would probably happen after a few weeks! 

The two videos show you some of the skills he has learned...he'll show off his kicking skills for you in the first video, and in the second video, you see how excited he is to have a ball included in the drill/song!

Sorry about he blue whale (me) in the pics and video.  I need to get myself a new black, one-piece slimming bathing suit.  I love the tankinis, but I think it's time to retire them. 

Showing off for Daddy and the camera

Of course, toys also make for an enjoyable time in the pool!

We have three more classes in this session of swim lessons, and decided that we'd enroll him in another six weeks of classes which will bring us to early June, which will be the start of outdoor pool season (hopefully)!  We figured keeping him in the class will help him get more comfortable being in the water, and then in the summer we'll hopefully be over at my friend Denise's a bit more this summer to enjoy her pool.  We also have two baby pools that Tommy can enjoy in our yard, which when we set up last year, he just cried and cried and cried, so we just stopped trying.  I was watching Tommy's friend Colin during lessons on Saturday, and like his mom and dad said, the kid has no fear all of a sudden.  He jumps from a sitting position on the side of the pool right into the water.  Tommy watched him do that and did try it out, but he's still very tentative.  But I was happy to see him modeling Colin's actions - he's already learning from his friends!