Joel has had swim lessons all this week and he is doing better each day. He was terrified of the water on the first day and clung to me with his arms wrapped around my neck and legs around my waist. He cried as we tried to do what the girl was teaching and slowly got more comfortable by the end of the first day. Every day since has been better than the day before. On Thursday, we went in the afternoon to the outdoor pool at the Rec. Center with Caitlin and Chris. He was very cautious of the new pool, but warmed up rather quickly. Caitlin and Chris had fun with him too. He kept a death grip on my hand or whatever he could grab, like my swim suit top. By the end of the 3 hours swimming, he wanted to jump in off the side of the pool (with the life jacket on, of course) for me to catch him and get his head under water. GO FIGURE? At the very end of the afternoon, he was jumping off the side to me and I was letting go of him and he'd doggie paddle to the ladder and go again (with a life jacket). I am so proud of him for the progress he's made in the 4 days he's had lessons!
They have taught him to float on his belly and his back, while mom holds on and NO floatie. He has learned to go under to get his head wet, he loves that part. And, he has learned to circle his arms while on his belly and do the back stroke while floating on his back. The motions for the back stroke are chicken (imagine the position you'd do for that), airplane, soldier. Joel loves airplanes when he sees them on TV or in the sky. He calls an airplane a "air-paney". It's so cute to hear him say and do the "chicken-airpaney-soldier" motion as he practices. He really thinks he's a big boy now.
Well, that's our first week of summer! Caitlin had her first two days of Color Guard practices this week and Chris went with us to the Rec. Center to play racket ball twice and just vegged out the other days! They get to go to Grandma and Grandpa Landin's for this next week. We will go to Corpus Christi to pick them up and celebrate Joel's birthday, Father's Day and Ilan and Eliana's 6th birthday. It should be fun.
