i'm not a big fan of people who smack when they are chewing gum. or anthing else for that matter. but i have made an exception to that annoyance: linnea chewing her favorite orange gum. it cracks me up that the smallish piece of trident is overwhelmingly huge in her 5-yr-old mouth. and she is all smack and spit when she is talking. because why wouldn't she want to talk with gum in her mouth? seriously, if this were someone who had not be in my belly for 9 months i would be beyond annoyed. like making annoyed eyes at them. but since it is my little linnea, it makes me laugh! but - she is not allowed to chew gum just any old time. basically only in the car or at home. primarily because i don't want her smacking to annoy someone else and her to get their annoyed eyes and me going all mama-bear on them. i think it is win-win-win for all potentially invovled. the end.
swimming lessons are painful. for me. my girls have taken lessons a couple of times. we did the once or twice a week lessons and although they love the water and have fun they did not learn much from those lessons. if anything, they learned bad habits from younger kids who were scared of the water. sigh. and so we decided that this summer we would have them take 2 weeks of daily lessons in hopes of getting them to be swimmers. and when i enrolled the girls i put them in the same class and in a level that i knew was above their actual ability. luckily there is just one other boy in the class. he is 7 and does know how to swim somewhat. the first day i sat on a bench, book in hand attempting to read. but i could not help but watch as the swim instructor got them each a hip-floaters, had them jump in the deep end and try to paddle to the other far end. oh my. i could tell both girls were afraid. but i was so proud of them - they each paddle, with some help, to the other end! and then they were shown how to use the kickboards and they kickboarded across the pool! it was not the greatest swimming. they won't win any fishy awards. but they are being brave, stepping out of their comfort zones, and by cracky! i think they might be able to swim at the end of next week! and this makes me happy...swimming is a basic survival skill that everyone should know! today, day 2 of lessons, they worked on backfloating - which wren hates. but she eventually relaxed and did okay. then, the instructor let them go down the big slide. the big slide that my girls have asked to go down every time we go swimming...and today was that day! wren climbed the stair, sat down and woosh! down she went...full of giggles! linnea climbed the stairs and stood up there. i could tell even from across the pool that she was scared. that she was not going to slide down on her own. even when i saw wren hollar some encouragement to her i knew she would not go. the instructor was saying something to her from where she was in the water. finally another instructor when up, chatted with linnea and slide down with her. after that? she was perfectly comfortable going down by herself.
and while each morning has been hard for me to watch, and pretend not to be the helicopter mom i can be...but we have all been brave this week. i have learned to sit back and let them go on their own and beig big and brave themselves. and the pride they have each had after each lessons is wonderful! they both admitted to being scared, but that they were glad they stuck with it because it is fun learning to swim. and each morning they look forward to going! yeah! i was worried that they would not want to go after that first day. and for about 15 minutes i doubted myself for a bit for putting them in a class above their abilities...but, they have made me one proud momma indeed!!
No comments:
Post a Comment