Our Little "Aqua Tot"

Avery started swim lessons on Monday.  A small school, Aqua-Tots, opened up very close to our house this past fall.  You probably know from previous posts, that we frequent the neighborhood pool as much as possible and while Avery has mastered the "puddle jumper" flotation device, she needs some survival skills (aka let's not sink to the bottom with your mouth wide open if you fall in).  So after the holiday rush, we decided to start lessons to prepare for this summer.  She starts at the level where they learn to blow water out and not inhale it.  She will also learn to float on her back and find the wall of the pool when needed.  Later, she'll get to actual swimming.

I started prepping her for class, asking if she was excited about going to the pool, explaining that I would be there, but not in the water with her.  She was very cool with idea, but kept saying she did not want to go under water..... which obviously was going to happen.... within the first minute of the lesson....I told her to listen to the coach and she would be fine.

 We got there a few minutes early (yes, you read that correctly) so Avery could see the pool and check the place out.  Here she is waiting for class to start, happy as usual, meanwhile I'm getting butterflies in my tummy (along with some kicks, this boy is quite active these days).

Soon the coach called her name and she followed her classmates to the pool, behind the wall of glass where I could no longer reach her.  My heart was really pounding at this point.  What if she slipped and fell?  What if she swallowed water and threw up all over the coach?  What if she screamed and cried and hated it?  How many kids have peed in this pool?  Is it hot in here or just me?

So class begins with a gentle forcing of the face in the water.  Then there was a some full on under water action, but I was too worried about her reaction to film.

The basic flow of the lesson is 4 kids on the wall and the coach does various exercises with them one at a time.  So if you're not first in line, you get to watch your classmates perform the task first.  Avery picked up on this towards the end and the coach had to talk her in to the last few under water exercises, but she pushed through.  The mother beside me said her daughter cried for her entire first lesson so Avery was doing very well by comparison.

Here she is coming out of the water and knocking down the blue turtle, I think that's a smile.

 Floating on her back with some support from coach.

At the end of class, they took a 10 second canoe trip to relax everyone, especially me.  Turns out, she was not traumatized and wants to go back next week.  Watch out Michael Phelps, here we come!