Splish Splash!

Last week Harrison and I started swimming lessons at the Shoreview Community Center.  Harrison has always loved baths and this summer showed how comfortable he was in pools so what better way to kill some time in the evenings!  Now that its getting cooler out I'm thankful we have another activity to add to our arsenal.  Harrison has had two lessons so far and has had a blast at both.

We have been practicing back floats, blowing bubbles, kicking, and "scooping" with his arms.  The "scooping" is a little advanced for him (the class goes up to 24 months), but he has the kicking and back floating down.  The back float is definitely his favorite.  He lays there calm as can be, hardly moving at all.  Even his instructor called him out last night saying, "And then there is Harrison, who looks like he may fall asleep"  We're continuing to work on blowing bubbles, right now he is still more set on drinking the water than blowing into it.  I find it wonderful that he has no problem putting his face in the water though.  One thing I'm glad we did was get Harrison used to having water on his face at a young age.  While his daddy and I never intentionally dumped water in his eyes, if he was splashed or water ran down his face during bath time we never made a big deal about it.

It has been decades since I have been to a swimming lesson and from my perspective things have changed throughout those years. I was definitely impressed by all of the songs and games they have for the little ones.  Lots of splashing, and singing and spinning and even tossing the babies in the air.  For the adults its more like a water aerobics class using a 30-lb kettlebell.

The only bummer about the classes is that the Community Center has a "no video/camera policy"  (Seriously??) I understand the need for security and privacy, but how sad to not be able to record my baby's first swimming lesson.  Thankfully, my mom came with to our class yesterday evening and was able to sneak a picture of us before we headed out to the pool!