Little Fish

Nathan and I do not like swimming; he hates being cold and sinking (no fat to make him float) and I hate the crazy confusion of getting ready (ewwww, greasy sunblock--where are all the towels?) and getting done (how do you get kids out of wet clothes without getting someone's dry clothes wet?).  I also don't like chlorine.

But occasionally we do go swimming.

Nampa has a lot of great options in summer and winter. In the summer, they have these two outdoor pools with splashpads (as in, water sprays around on the concrete so little kids can get wet and not drown.) I have drooled over fun and beautiful photos my friends have posted of their trips to the splash pad where they live, and I couldn't wait to do the same!

Then I realized I don't have a waterproof camera.  So just look at this image I stole off the Nampa Parks and Recreation website and imagine us having fun there!

(And pretend I look like that girl in the bikini.)

And check out the cool braids Annalee let me put in her hair!

After our trip to the water park we decided to put Annalee in swimming lessons. They cost $35 for 30 min/day for 10 days. She was super-excited for lessons! The first day was a bust because the power had gone out and they wouldn't let anyone get in the pool. So some gal read the kids a dumb story about a duck who was afraid of swimming until she had swim lessons. (If they weren't afraid before, they might be wondering if they should be now. I mean, if a DUCK is afraid to swim....) But the rest of the lessons went much better. She was in a late afternoon class, which meant that all the parents and grandparents melted in the shade and the kids still froze. (I guess because they have no fat? Come on, it was over 100 degrees outside!)

We were lucky to get into a class with only 4 kids, when they usually have 6.  That meant they each got a little more attention and one-on-one.  Annalee was the only girl.  She was always enthusiastic to be the "next" person to try something new (she never spoke up quickly enough to be first).  There was one boy, Sean, who had taken the class before, and he was a little fish.  He would put his head under water and splash around like he'd been born for it.  The rest of the kids had to slowly warm up to it.  Over the course of the class Tyson became nearly as comfortable as Sean, but Annalee and Aiden remained nervous about getting their heads or faces wet.  She was excited to do anything as long as her head didn't get wet!  Her favorite thing was picking up the toys that the teacher scattered in the 2" wading pool.  As the tallest in the class she could easily reach them without going under, the cheater!

On the last day they had a Fun Day.  The teacher tied pool noodles around them and let them flounder about in the deeper pool.  They also went down a little slide.

As he led them around the pool it occured to me that I was very glad there were only three of them (one boy was absent) because the pool noodles didn't look very secure and 4 or even 6 kids would have been hard to keep track of.

And then I started thinking that her noodle looked like it was coming undone.  And then it did!

Right after this picture was taken, the end of the noodle that you can't see slipped out and she was balanced on her chest on the noodle without holding on.  The second it slipped I lunged toward the water and only stopped myself because the teacher had turned back toward her at the same moment and grabbed her.  One more second and I would have been in the pool with my dead cell phone!

They handed out progress reports at the end and two pieces of candy (any guesses which Annalee wanted more?)  They recommended that she retake the level, and I agree.  Still, she made a lot of progress.  On the last day we managed to bribe her to jump into the pool (so her head got wet) instead of lowering herself in.


Yay, little fish!