William and Lindsey had to go to Dallas for the second week of our two week swim lesson course, so William wasn't there for the picture I took the last day, but he was a fish just like his cousins for sure! Swim lessons were an adventure for sure. The adventure started with me trying to find a swimsuit to put on my 32 week pregnant self that not only fit but that my flailing two year old might not pull down every two seconds. Once that mission was accomplished, (sorry no pics!), we just had to make it there by 9 am. Once there, the real adventure began. Chesley loved the swimming part of it, she loved that her cousins and Hillary and Lindsey were there, she loved that her Gammy, Annie, Woo Woo, and Grandy all came to watch her on different days, she loved splashing everyone and throwing toys in the water from the side. She did not always love Mrs. Wu, aka Mrs. Lu. I would wonder if Mrs. Lu was at the parting of the Red Sea except for the fact that if she had been she would have just thrown the non-swimmers in the water, told them to hold their breath and pushed them across to 'bump' the other side-- in other words Moses wouldn't have needed to bother with all that parting business bc Lu could have taught them all to swim across the darn thing! She is one tough cookie, and she has to be to be able to put up with all the screaming and whining that comes her way- it doesn't seem to phase her. She told me one time that she really doesn't even hear it anymore. Chesley alternately liked and disliked Mrs. Wu depending on whose face she was putting in the water at the time. If it was Chesley's face she did not, in fact, care for Mrs. Wu and would tell her so. Pruet told Hillary he wanted to go swimming at the lake for Memorial day as long as Mrs. Lu wasn't there. But Mrs. Lu taught me what to do to practice with Chesley, taught Chesley where to go if she fell in, how to hold her breath (that one she teaches them pretty much by showing them how not fun it is to not hold your breath), and at the end I may not have left with a two year old who could join the swim team but I did leave with our bases covered, everything I needed to know to practice with her, a promise that sooner rather than later it would all click, and a child who still wanted to go swimming every day.
The first few times I took her swimming myself she wanted nothing to do with practicing or putting her face in the water. Then the next few times she was willing to practice a 'whittle bit mama, just a whittle.' And by the end of the first two weeks post Mrs. Wu I have a child who can swim without any flotation device as far as one breath will carry her. She still doesn't really swim on the very top of the water, so she isn't quite strong enough to get her head out and take a breath to keep going but if she has her safety seal (a body floatie thingy) on she can swim all day long with her face in bc she knows how to take a breath she just isn't strong enough to do it on her own yet. But I have a child who will jump off the side and swim to me, who will go down the slide at the country club (pictures coming soon) and who will jump off the diving board at the country club and swim to the ladder all by herself! In other words, I have a child who LOVES to swim, has no fear of it, but knows what she can and can't do with and without Mama. And I have Mrs. Wu to thank for that. She told us what to do, we did it, and I can't wait to see what kind of swimmer I will have on my hands by the end of this summer. Thanks Mrs. Lu!!
Mrs. Lu gives them cookies on the last day, looks like they must have been pretty tasty!
I'm pretty sure I made Hillary get in this picture just to hold their hands/cookies down so maybe they would look at the camera and smile-- Tilly gave me a big smile!
