Swimming Lessons

We had a shaky start to swimming lessons at the new indoor pool. Ayden's first lesson on Feb 1st was full of tears and fit-throwing. When we talked about it in the week leading up to his first lesson, he kept insisting that I had to get in the pool with him (because we did a mommy & me class last summer). I told him he was 3 now and only kids and teachers get in the pool when you are 3. He was not satisfied with that answer. Luckily, he had a great teacher who made a connection with him through his tears and he only cried for about 5 minutes or so. The next lesson the crying lasted 20 minutes...of the 1/2 hour lesson. The following week he started crying when we pulled in the parking lot. I was prepared with jelly bean bribery and there was no crying once he got in the pool! Success! The next few lessons he was finally excited to be there.

As of last lesson on Wednesday, he can:

jump in
put his head under the water

climb out on his own

do "kickers" and "scoopers"

.....All of which he could do at the end of last summer.

So, we spend $55 for a month of swimming lessons to get him to the point he was at at the end of last summer. Hopefully next month he'll actually make some progress!

Updates

Wow - I can't believe it's been over a month since I've updated. We enjoyed the month of January as hermits - not much to do (which was wonderful) means not many pictures. February has been a bit busier...

Ayden was very excited about Valentine's Day. He made little goodie bags for his party at school with pencils, play doh, lollipops, stickers, and Cars tatoos! Now that he is older, he totally understands holidays, especially since they had been talking about it at school. He put all the stuff in the little bags all by himself - even though he managed to break a few of the lollipops and bit the eraser off of one of the pencils. He's close to being able to write his name, but definitely couldn't do it 8 times, but he did write the "A" on all of his valentines and I wrote the rest of his name.

When we tried to explain to him about the superbowl and that we were going to a party, he said, "A football party? I have to wear my football shirt!" He ran to his closet and grabbed the jersey he got from his cousins for his 2nd birthday - it's getting a little small, but he still looked cute! It's a nice tribute to all of my family in Texas who are HUGE Cowboy's fans, especially since I had just returned from a few days in Texas for my grandfather's funeral.

He wanted me to take his picture, but wouln't stand still long enough for me to actually get a good one...oh well.

The other night Ayden dragged out his pop open tent things and dumped the entire shopping cart full of play food onto the family room floor. It kept him occupied for quite a while so we could make dinner. A little later, he asked, "Mommy & Daddy, will you join my picnic?" It was so cute, he made us all pretend pizzas and even cleaned up his own mess. He thanked both of us throughout the night for "joining my picnic." It makes me realize that we need to do more of those little things that don't take much effort, just a little time!

Ayden has been getting so much better at using the computer. Ken set up Ayden as a separate user on his laptop and set it so that when he opens the internet, it goes straight to Playhouse Disney and he plays games from there. There are days where he would play for hours at a time if we let him, but it's nice that he doesn't need so much help and can occupy himself for a little while.