Swimming Lessons

Noah and Levi had swimming lessons last week at the pool in Hillsboro.  Strange enough, Monday evening when I took them it was almost chilly outside!  The sky was cloudy and the wind was blowing from the north.  The boys were a little apprehensive at first, but quickly warmed up to Cari, their teacher.  Monday they had a 30-minute lesson together.  When they finished, Cari and I agreed that they'd both do better if they had their own 30-minute time slots.  

Thankfully, babysitter Georgia was available to take the boys to Hillsboro in the morning Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to make the individual lessons work out.  

  

 It was fascinating to see the difference between Monday's lesson and Friday's lessons.  The boys were doing great!  Cari taught them several different strokes and even though their legs and arms don't always do what they're supposed to be doing, they certainly were doing a great job!

 The amount of eye wiping was hilarious to me.  Every little splash required lots of eye wiping.

 Noah learned how to dive into the deep end.  I distinctly remember learning to do this as a child and the same amount of anxiety rose up within me watching Noah as it did when I was a kid facing the waters of the deep end.

 The first one didn't go so well...

 But he did improve and also did a great job swimming back to the edge!  I was impressed (and relieved!).

 Then to the diving boards!

 I love how seriously Noah took this part. :-)

 Then it was Levi's turn.  He seemed to really have a good time with Cari.

 They spent some time looking for birds...

 Noah and I enjoyed hanging out poolside while Levi was swimming.

 Levi ended his lesson by going down the big slide.  This had been a topic of enormous stress for Levi.  Two evenings in a row he had cried at supper because he was so fearful of going down the slide.  But, Cari took him up and talked to him a little bit and before I knew it he was riding down!

 And he LOVED it!!

Getting swimming lessons wrapped up felt like a big accomplishment for us.  I think having the kids take lessons is really important and it's always a relief when we're done with them.  We can check swimming lessons off our summer to-do list!