swim lessons

 a little turtle talk in the pool

i'm not afraid of the water but i am by no means the waterman that justin is.  he envisions dawn patrols and surf trips to exotic locales with saraya (i'm invited to take pics) in the near future.  i think it's a fantastic idea but i realize that if it's going to happen, she'll need to learn how to swim long before i did.

she's been taking swim lessons for about a year now.  she goes once a week with a formal lesson lasting about 20 min and plenty of play time in the water before and/or after the lesson.  it is amazing to see the progress she's made!  i love how comfortable she is in the water yet she's very safety conscious.  at this stage she has started semi-private lessons.  instead of 'parent and me' classes with anywhere from 3 to 5 pairs in the pool at a time, she now has just one other student in class with her and the instructor.  they take turns with one student hanging on to the instructor's back like a monkey and the other getting the lesson.

last week i went to her first class since the winter break and i expected her to be a little rusty.  she needed memory refreshers for her "big arms" and back float but then she turned around and shocked us all by doing her first jump off of the diving platform.  the instructor said most kids are pretty wary their first attempt and usually hesitant to even climb up.  not this waterbaby... she climbed right up, put her toes on the edge and jumped right in!  as soon as she surfaced she was laughing so loudly that everyone in the pool turned to see what was happening. "again, again!" she shouts.

i wasn't prepared for her to actually jump the first time so i missed catching it on video but once i realized that she loved it and was planning a repeat performance, i rushed to catch it on film.  so please enjoy this quick clip of one of her first jumps into the pool.  she doesn't laugh as loudly as the first time but you can definitely still hear her chuckle.  i think she's well on her way to a surf trip with daddy.