There was a great hope that this year there would be no weeping.
The first year Jack took to swimming like a small sun kissed fish,
fully enjoying the water.
The first year Will was a ball of tears, clinging to the side,
tearing my heart right out.
I lasted all of 4 days before I decided we'd wait another year on Will.
Last year, he actually dunked his head. In fact, it was his signature move.
They would say, "Do a front float." He would dunk his head.
They would say, "Kick with your legs." He would dunk his head.
They would say, "Use your big arms." And he would dunk his head.
But I felt we were making deep progress. He was, after all, dunking his head.
Other than the fact that I misread the time this Monday,
totally missed our scheduled swim lessons at 3:15
and showed up for the 3:50 lessons, which the 16 year old pool coordinator
was very accomodating about squeezing us in anyway, I had high expectations.
Keeping Addison with me, I walked the boys to their respective pools.
Will went straight in the pool and began dunking, kicking and torpedoing.
I was so ecstatic I hardly noticed Jack.
By the time I did, it was apparent something was very wrong.
That would be the fact that I signed him up for a class that was 2 levels
higher than it should have been so they had to step him down a class.
Like his mother, he does not take demotion easily.
It is not that I want to crush my childen's spirits and send them into
a downward spiral of depression, it's just that I can't seem to read
the parks and recreations manual. Obviously, I have some issues
when it comes to deciphering swim placement and time of lessons.
It took a great deal of explaining on my part to Jack that
"No, Mommy does not want to cripple you with unrealistic expectations
of your swim abilities, she just can't read."
At this point, Addison had taken his shirt off and said in no uncertain terms,
"Shirt off. I go pool now!"
To which I said, "Addie, just the big boys have lessons. You are too little."
Which caused him to hurl himself to the moist ground and burst into tears.
Day Two brought some angst as well, since we attended a different session,
there were different teachers.
So we had some weeping, some clinging, some serious bribery that went down with Will.
A double scoop of Thrifty's ice cream would be paid out
if Will would just get in the pool. Please, just get in the pool!
And then there was a bright moment of clarity.
Apparently, Will had formed a life long bond with his BOY teacher
in the 3:50 class and in the 3:15 class they tried to put him with
a GIRL teacher instead of a BOY teacher. GIRL teacher? EW!
And that BOY teacher was right over there on the side practicing kicks.
Could he go with that BOY teacher?
For goodness sakes, yes, wipe your tears and go with the BOY teacher.
So by yesterday, everything was fine. Just fine.
I timed Addison's nap with the lessons so that he could stay home while
Scott worked and not be tormented by his lack of pool time.
Jack has made a friend in his swim group. And there is nothing like a friend
to make everything smooth out.
Will has his boy teacher and jumped off the diving board into the deep end
yesterday, which gave me a heart attack as I screamed from the roped off
parent area, "He can't swim."
Which gave the other parents a hearty chuckle as he happily paddled to the side.
So other than the fact that I am officially, 3 years older than I was when
I started this process 3 days ago, everything is going swimmingly.
Yes, it is.
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