That's the kind of mood I'm in!
Woke up this morning feeling O'-So-Patriotic that I sang "America The Beautiful" "My Country Tis of Thee" and "The Star Spangled Banner". And then because Sophia asked me to please stop singing already! and Claire didn't seem all that impressed I googled/YouTube patriotic music and did an impromptu Independence Day parade around the kitchen table complete with three little sun tanned babies marching along behind me. And that was all before 8 am. The Fourth of July is my favorite holiday after Christmas, and yes it's okay for adults to have "favorite holidays. In honor of our great nation I am now sipping ice cold coffee out of a mason jar because it just seems more festive than drinking out of a plain mug and by golly I'm ready to celebrate!
What I really meant to write about was the conclusion of swim class. Not really the conclusion as much as the stuff that happened between the time Alex was unwilling to dip so much as a pinky toe into the water right up to the point where he was doing a backward swan dive off the high dive. And I'm only slightly exaggerating.
Remember back to the post where I schemed a plan for getting him into the water? It involved something like repeating "You will get in the water" enough times and with so much conviction that he would be *tricked* into getting in the water. Any guesses on how well that worked out? If you answered complete and total parenting fail than you guessed correctly.
It seems that the trick for getting a scared three year old boy into a cold swimming pool is for a beautiful, smiling, college aged swim instructor to come over to the bleachers and scoop him into her arms and carry him to the edge of the water. Then said three year old boy will happily jump right in. And so it went. Every single time. Alex acting "pretend scared" and clinging to Patrick's legs until his swim instructor would come over and carry him off, with him all the while grinning at us over her shoulder. He's a smart one that little Alex. And a good swimmer now too. I would never out right confess it to the others but he probably did the best at actually learning to swim, both above and below water. I guess weighing in at 28 lbs doesn't hurt.
And so this short tale of swimming misadventures doesn't exclude the other little Nelsons I have to say that Sophia would have won the award for most creative jumps off the diving board had there been awards on the last day and Max who mostly clung to his swim teacher, spent each lesson with a huge smile across his face.
Here's the proof:
And one of Sophia and her enthusiastic diving style
And finally my little guy swimming his heart out
Oh and one of him jumping too!
No comments:
Post a Comment