Brigs-Swimming Lessons

Last Wednesday, the 8th, Brigham started swimming lessons at Augie.  He has always loved taking a bath, but has never liked swimming and we are not sure why.  He spends more time at the pool laying in the chairs next to me than he does getting wet! When Boston was a baby I did a mommy & baby swimming class with him and as soon as he was old enough (3) we started summer swimming lessons in Tea.  I don't ever remember him being scared or afraid of lessons or the pool.  I didn't do the mommy & baby lessons with Brigham, so this is his first swimming class.  It is the Toddler 1 class, so it's basically just to get them used to the water and getting them to splash around and play.  I got him new swim shorts, and we talked about how fun it was going to be before we went for his first lesson.  He kept telling me he was going to do a canon ball in the water, and even practiced at home on the living room floor!  I got the impression he was excited about it and would do OK.  I was so wrong!  The poor kid cried/screamed the entire 30 minutes!  There are about 7 kids in his class and only one of them enjoyed herself.  It was quite comical.  I felt awful for the teachers!

Looking at the water and already not liking it..

 No matter what the life guards or helpers tried to do to get him to warm up, he was just NOT having it!

 The Motor Boat song calmed him down for a few minutes.

 Only smile of the night was when lessons were over!   He kept saying 'I car-y I cye mommy.'  

So this week, we started talking about lessons almost every day, how he was going to be a big boy, be brave and have fun!  We bribed him with a new Ninja Turtle toothbrush and a snack after lessons if he didn't cry.  He said 'You sing, Go Bigum, Go Bigum, Go!'  It was hilarious that he wanted us to all cheer for him.  So, the whole family bundled up and went along to lessons and he didn't cry!  He was still very shy and nervous, but there was a 100% improvement from last week.  He held on very tightly to the edge and was still unsure about walking around in the water with the teachers, but he did it.  At the end of lessons the kids each took a turn standing on the edge of the pool and jumping to the teacher.  We could see him shaking his head 'no' that he didn't want to do it, but he did give it a try.  There was really no 'jumping' to the teacher, she more or less just lifted him down into the water :)

Smiles before they even started!

He puts his fingers in his mouth when he is nervous, and he insisted that this little Big Bird baby toy sit on his towel during lessons.  

 Looking up to make sure we are all still watching!  We did 'thumbs up' a lot!

He still has a long ways to go, but if he improves each week, I think it will be well worth our efforts!