swimming, take two

Me, the loving wife that I am, signed sweet pea up for swimming lessons (no, she's really not walking on her own yet) with her daddy. It's the baby class, and she is actually the youngest 'baby' (I was peaking at the roster last tuesday).

This past tuesday was her fourth lesson. She's splashed, blown bubbles (daddy's actually blowing the bubbles, sweet pea's just licking the water - "don't drink the water sweet pea, little boys PEE in that water"), kicked, and closed her eyes to get ready to get dunked. Yes folks, you heard it right - get ready to get dunked. What they do is blow in the little one's face so they close their eyes and hold their breath before they get dunked. Well, daddy blows in her face, she closes her eyes and holds her breath, and then daddy chickens out. There are 2, yes 2 life guards in the small class... she'll be fine!!! Oh well, maybe next week.

So, back to this past tuesday. I saw the group of swimmers and moms/dads walking to the other side of the pool towards the slide and diving board. I looked at this sweet little grandma as I got up to walk around to the other side and she said "they're not taking them to the diving board and slide are they?" and I said, "Nooooo, my little one just turned a year old and really isn't walking yet". Well, silly me, they WERE taking them to the slide and diving board.

Ha... do you think the daddy that won't put sweet pea's head under water would let her go down the slide? His exact words were (something like), "she can't walk yet... are you nuts" after I asked him if he was going to let sweet pea go. We were the only loser family not letting their little one have fun... just kidding - about the loser part.

So, I talked him into it (even though I wasn't quite sure about this, but there were 2, yes 2 lifeguards on duty). I took sweet pea to the top of the slide, gave her a little shove, she flew down the tube slide - maybe 4-6 feet long - daddy caught her and she LOVED it. She went down at least 5 or 6 more times before class was over and then whined and cried as daddy walked back to the other side of the pool to leave.

Today, I went over to a friends house for a few hours. She had a kiddie pool set up with a kiddie slide in it. Sweet pea had a blast. Everytime she went down, she turned around to climb back up and do it again... she was climbing up the slide part though. She hasn't learned how to take turns yet, either.

Here are a few pictures from her first lesson... she wasn't exactly thrilled that day.