NOW the boy takes lessons!

Last month Jill and I researched swim lessons for the kids. We found the local pool offers 45 minute lessons, 5 days a week for two weeks... 3 and under, then 4 and above.

Katerina has declared to everyone that SHE is going to become a MERMAID! I think she is looking forward to it.

We aren't sure WHAT Kyle thinks. We have tried explaining to him that he is taking swim lessons and he doesn't react much. We have had Kat explaine to Kyle that he will be taking swim lessons and he tackles her. Since he tackles her almost daily, we didn't read too much into it.

We started looking into lessons because Kyle had been increasingly upset whenever we put him in the bathtub and we were concerned he was having flashbacks or some such thing and we didn't want him to be afraid of water.

So tonight was the first night. Since he has been a bit of a mothers boy lately, Jill got to sit with him during his lesson and I took Kat to the wading pool. Kat spent more time watching Kyle than she did wading. Then again, I spent more time watching Kyle than watching Kat. Throughout the lesson the instructors were great. When Jill first took Kyle into the water, the instructor noticed that he didn't want to go any farther in than his ankles. She came over and talked to Jill to find out what his experience has been with water. After that she stayed with Kyle for one on one instruction for the entire lesson. After the lesson was over for everyone else, another instructor came over and worked with Kyle for an additional 15 minutes. During this time, Kat and I went into the pool and used Katerina to motivate Kyle to step a little deeper into the water to give Kat a hug, which he did. He was willing to walk into water up over his waist in order to hug his sister. After the lesson, the instructors played catch with him so that he could associate having fun with the water.

I hadn't realized how tense I was until he got out of the pool and we dried him off. I think all of us took a big step tonight.