Swimming

I told Bubba a long time ago, way before his birthday, that when he turned three he could take swim lessons with Cakes and Silly. Not long after his birthday he reminded me that he was now big enough for swim lessons. They started Monday and this is how he did:

 

He pretty much cried his head off the whole time. When he wasn't crying he insisted on sitting on the steps, far away from his class, and I had to keep my chair right next to him. There were a bunch of other moms around who kept reassuring me that their child had once done the same thing, as if I seemed very concerned and had never had that kind of experience before. I found their concern rather amusing.

The rest of Monday we kept talking to him about swim lessons and he would tell us, "I not scared anymore." He did much better on Tuesday. He didn't speak to his teacher at all, wouldn't make any eye contact at all, but that isn't unusual for him. He takes a long, long time to warm up to new people. He was in nursery for over a year before his teachers even knew he could talk.

Cakes is her usual super swimmer self. She has ended up with the same swim teacher, Mr. Tyler, more often than not since she started taking lessons at 3 years old. The girl really needs to move up to the swim team but we just can't talk her into it. She loves to swim, she's really good at it, she wants to get better, she wants to swim more, all of which she could do on the swim team, but she's terrified of the whole competition aspect. There's a fine line between encouraging her and pushing her to do better or pushing her over the edge and turning something she loves into something she hates. Baby steps.

Silly is his usual happy, goofy little self. It cracks me up that he is such a good floater. I don't know why I find that amusing, but the kid can float indefinitely. His arm movement for the backstroke needs some serious work though. I wish I had my camera that day. The boy honestly has no idea that his arm is actually capapble of rotating all the way around at his shoulder. Something to work on.

In other news, I think I have found the magical incentive to convince Bubba to use the potty - his own scooter. He is always stealing Silly's scooter, and is actually quite good at it. He was having a meltdown one morning because Silly was riding "his" scooter. I told him that when he uses the potty and wears underwear he can get his very own and then he won't have to share with Silly anymore. He thinks it's a great idea, but we've only convinced him to use the potty once since then. Every time I ask him he says, "No. Not yet." It's gonna take a long time to fill that sticker chart!