the murrays: Swimming!!

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Swimming!!

Ever since I found out I was pregnant with Maris, the one thing I was sad about was that the kids wouldn't get to do swimming lessons this year. The original plan was to have a baby in July--well that was MY plan anyway, and then we could do some fun summery things like swimming lessons and camping before the baby came. But alas, it was not to be and I got pregnant in September instead of October. :)

So anyway, I thought there was no way I could handle swimming lessons with a baby. I didn't want to let the girls do it and not Owen-- who wants to torture themself and their 2-year-old and baby out in the heat every day for 2 weeks? And Owen isn't old enough for regular lessons; he had to be in the mommy and me class. And I knew I couldn't swim with Owen and the baby. So no lessons this year.

.....Aaaand then Maris was born and I quickly realized we would never survive the summer without swimming at all, and lessons were an easy way to get to go lots, and I really wanted to get a tan myself :) and I thought maybe Maris would be able to survive it..... so I called for some backup, and wonderful Mary volunteered to come down 3 times in the 2 weeks of lessons, and my Mom would be here for one time, and I hoped the girls would be able to take care of Maris for the rest of the times?? I figured even if she cried a few of the days so much that Owen and I had to get out, it would still be worth it.

And OH MY GOODNESS I am so glad we did it!!

The girls improved hugely in their skills- here is Katelyn doing the backstroke,

and the "front crawl" they call it- she was in Level 3 and trying to learn side breathing... poor girl kept sucking in water! But she is a stronger swimmer and can tread for a couple seconds now. :)

Whitney at her class,

backfloating, and I didn't get any pictures of her swimming but she was in level 2 and did GREAT. Apparently this weekend when Eric took the kids swimming she was jumping off the diving board and swimming to the side all by herself! Wow I was impressed to hear that!

And Owen and I had a BLAST in the Mom and Me class! It ended up being so much more than swimming for us-- it pretty much cured him of the new baby sister blues! Having that half hour every day for 2 weeks of me holding him, singing and playing and trying new things and being silly and praising him like crazy for everything, it was like magic. So cute and so perfect. I loved being with my sweet boy and watching him go from clinging onto me the first day and refusing to jump off the side or try to blow bubbles, to jumping in and going under before I would catch him (on purpose), and even trying to let go of the wall and swim to me! He wasn't very good at it, but I was amazed that he wasn't afraid to try! It was so much fun.

This is the wall where he liked to blow bubbles and practice kicking.

This is him trying to swim to me, he could go about 2 feet haha

jumping to me!

And Maris was a CHAMP, of the 5 days Katelyn and Whitney were in charge of her (they did great by the way!), 3 of them she slept the whole time in her car seat, one she was awake the whole time and happy, and only once did she cry enough that we got out early!! Awesome. Thanks baby girl!

The last day Mary and Elizabeth were there and Eric met up with us after and we got to all go swimming together during regular open swim time, and it was Maris' first time in a swim suit!