The Deep End

It's more obvious to me now that two of my children possibly have fish genes spliced into their system. Last year I signed Alex and Abby up for swim lessons at our closest YMCA. It cost a minor fortune for someone on our budget, but was well worth it in the end because both of them took to water like they have gills. By summer's end, they were crazy kids in the water. This year I wanted to further their skills with a second round of swim lessons. I decided, due to financial restraints, that I would sign them up at our local pool.
1. We can walk to lessons. It's two blocks down the street.
2. It was much cheaper. Nuff said.
3. They have a baby pool for Evie to play in when the kids are swimming.
All around, good idea. So basically, this was their first week. Monday, they already knew most everything they instructors taught (I should have bumped them to level 3, but had no way of knowing until they started). By today, they were both in the deep end of the pool. What?! Yep. That's right. They can survive in water. Granted, they just started learning how to tread water and there is NO way I'd just let them go in the deep end and play for a long period of time without me or Josh. But they surprised even me. Two years ago, I wouldn't have dreamed that I'd be sitting on the sidelines watching my kids jump into ten feet of water without having a small panic attack. Today, I just sit there and smile - nervous breakdown free.

Yesterday, Alex jumped off of the "high" dive. (It's not really that high...small town pool ya know.) Today, He did it without the instructor helping him get to the ladder. Then today, Abby jumped off the low dive and then strutted right over to the high dive and jumped! I was so dang proud of those two monkeys! I think we'll do swim lessons every year until they cap out at level 5 just so they get two straight weeks of pool time. It's worth it and I feel super comfortable when they are around water. And the really fun part? Evie loves the pool! She loves tootin' around in her lady bug car (complete with inflatable shade canopy!). When she sees the kids playing, it's all I can do to keep her from climbing in. So does that mean I've tortured the world by getting into a bathing suit? Yup. Pretty much. It's worth it.