When Audrey first started swim lessons, she cried and cried. But that was OK since Malia cried and cried too. Malia loved it when she first started lessons at 9 months old. Then she went through a period of time at 16 months of age where she didn't want to swim. I figured it was a separation anxiety issue and she'd out grow it eventually. Not the case. I clearly underestimated my kid's stubbornness. One day, after about 8 or 9 months of listening to her shrieks echo off the walls, I got tired of her crying and on the way to swim lessons, scolded her in the car: "Malia! No more crying! I don't want to hear anymore crying at swim, do you understand?"
OK, I admit, it wasn't the shiniest moment in Mommyhood. But come on! It's the same lesson she's been having for a while and nothing's changed. So why was she crying as if the pool was a vat of acid?!
Anyway, I guess she was waiting for me to say something because she abruptly stopped crying. That day. Not a whimper, not a whine. Not even a hesitation to get into the pool. It was as if a switch was turned off. If I had known that was all it took, I would have yelled at her months ago.
After that lesson, which happened to be after Audrey's lesson (and Audrey was still crying during her lessons), I praised Malia for a job well done and asked her: "Malia! Did you cry?" To which she responded: "No, I didn't cry.... But Audrey cried!"
And so she's been saying that ever since: "I didn't cry; Audrey cried." Except now she says it with a little smirk and a whole lot of smugness.
Since Audrey helped Malia get over her hate of swim lessons (no matter how unintentional) I'd figure out a way to get Audrey to like swim lessons too. And honestly, it was getting a little embarrassing how smug Malia was getting with her "I didn't cry... Aubrey cried!" litany. I suggested having the girls swim together for the last 5 minutes of Audrey's lesson and the first 5 minutes of Malia's lesson. I remember Kael doing that with his friend Len and Kael swam his little butt off. It worked for the girls. Now they both love swimming and hopefully this will have them learn faster. Who says a little competition amongst friends isn't healthy?
Malia and Audrey.
Malia still has a hard time floating on her back . She can do it but refuses to. The instant she doesn't feel Sara's fingers, she flips over or tries to sit up, thus resulting in her going under the water. There's been a few times that Sara has been able to trick Malia and she's floated. So I know she's capable.
Here's Audrey doing a back float. She's got the strangest back float I have EVER seen. You can't tell from this picture but only her head and her feet are floating. Her body and butt are under the water. As in way WAY under the water. She's essentially in the shape of a V. Even Sara the instructor can't figure how she's floating.
Kael doing a side stroke.
Kael and his instructor Trevor. Malia's secret crush. She had a make-up lesson one time with Trevor (once!) and it's "Bye Trevor!" after every lesson since then. All that's missing is the eyelash flutter.
What do you see that's the same in this picture?
And this picture?
And this picture?
Answer: She's always smiling. Sure, this is a good thing. I love that she's loving swim lessons again. However, it also means that she's going in the water with her mouth open. I hate to think about how much water she's ingesting. Water that's seen how many people? How many kids? Gack!
No comments:
Post a Comment