Wednesday, April 29, 2009

First Swimming Lesson

Weekend before last, Sami was invited to her first birthday party of one of her little pre-school classmates. The parents threw a lovely little kid-friendly party at an indoor pool. But the thing is, most of Sami's classmates had (apparently) either more experience at being in the pool, or a great deal less sense than she did. The pool at its shallowest was 3 feet deep. Which puts it about mid-eyeball on Sam. There was one little raised platform about 3 feet by 4 feet that made it only about 2 and a half feet deep. But even with her life jacket on (oh don't worry, I didn't embarrass her -- a number of the kids wore them) the movement of the water freaked her out, and she ended up spending most of her time in the kiddie playground area and playing catch with a beachball with her little buddy Tomas.

She had fun, but I realized it would probably be good timing to get her into swimming lessons. And while she's not generally fearful of being in a pool, we just don't have many opportunities. She thinks its fun when we're all in the water together like when we visit my aunt and uncle who have a pool in their back yard. But as for braving it alone, not so much.

Enter yet another classmate's lovely mother. Her son was swimming like a little happy fish, and she admitted it was because her husband runs the rec center. In our neighborhood! Better yet, they offer to sign Sami up for lessons even though we have kind of technically missed the deadline. So we did. Great deal too -- 10 half hour lessons for 32 bucks. Twice a week. And it fit perfectly with our schedules.

So yesterday was her first lesson. For the couple of days leading up to it, she said she was excited. But as the hours gave way to minutes until we left for the center, I could see her nervousness amp up. She exhibits it by chattering nonstop. It is kind of cute. And she doesn't come by her apprehension about coming events unfamiliar to her on her own--I am exactly the same way. (We did stop by a few days prior to her lesson just to get the lay of the land. As much for goofy me as it was for her. Anyway....)

We got there and made our way to the pool area. And all I'm seeing are moms (20 years my junior) in their swimsuits with their infants. Clearly a "Mommy and Tot" class. Umm. Hmmm. Crap. We got signed up for the wrong class. Unsettling discomfort ensues. I finally cornered a sort of "in charge"-looking woman and inquired. Ah, good. There are 2 classes. They will not be forcing my pudgy whiteness into a swimsuit. Sami is properly signed up for the pre-school lesson with no parental swimming.

Sami whispers to me that she really wants her teacher to be a girl. We get Terry the Guy. Oh well, he seems really nice. This first day was only 5 kids. That was cool. But ol' Terry jumped right into it -- errr, made the precious children jump into it. He took them to about the 2.5 foot deep level, and had 'em jump in. I saw it on Sami's face. I knew she was struggling. And trust me -- every part of me wanted to go over there and talk her through it. But I resisted. And watched. With my heart kind of breaking just the teeniest bit to watch her be so brave because all the other kids were more experienced and not at all freaked out about jumping in. And the peer pressure. Gah! She went with it, but I could see she was NOT comfortable.

She loosened up as the lesson wore on, but I could still see discomfort. And then, the instructor had them lie on their bellies, and one at a time he kind of pulled / supported them through the water while they were supposed to be kicking. Well Sami was a champion kicker but she was so afraid of getting her face in the water that she was holding her head up so high that her feet weren't kicking up out of the water. So she was like a little propeller and knocked the stalwart young Terry right off his balance at which point he kinda dropped her and splunk, into the water she went. Face and all. She had a little freaked out look on her face, but she bucked up and was fine.

After the lesson when we got home, I asked her if she had fun. She said yes. I like to try to give her room to talk about her negative emotions without feeling all judged about it, so I said, "Man, I'd have been nervous at the beginning, though. Were you?" And she goes, "Yes Mom. I was. Actually? Right when we started I felt like I was going to cry. But I didn't."

Then she proceeded to tell me the story of her face going into the water about 3 more times over then next hour.

Took me long enough to finish this post that her second lesson came and went. Daddy took her to it. I was afraid the dropping incident might have made her a little intimidated about going back, but Daddy said she never hesitated once.

Oh, and at the nearly brand new rec center? She pronounced the restrooms a bit "old" for her taste. I've no idea.