little fishie

Micah started swimming lessons again this past Thursday (he says "thank you!" to his Nana and Papa for the lessons)!  He has been enrolled in Swim Baby class at Swimtastic since he was six months old.  The classes are small - only 6 babies and their mommy/daddy - to every teacher.  Our teacher this session is Miss Danielle, and she is FABULOUS! 

I'm not biased or anything, but Micah is a fabulous swimmer!  Okay, well as fabulous as you can be when you're only 15 months old.  At the end of last session, Miss Danielle said that he would be ready to move to the Swim Toddler class at the end of this current session, when he turned 18 months old - 6 months earlier than most babies move up.  Unfortunately, when the babies move up to Swim Toddler, they no longer take a mommy or daddy into the pool with them.  They go, with 2 other babies, by themselves, while the clingy mommies and daddies sit outside the pool in the chairs where all the OTHER parents sit and watch.  Or knit.  Or text.  Or do anything besides watch their little one swim.  

Now, I'm not a rocket science scientist or anything.  I mean, I only teach third grade.  But if the Swim Toddler class has 3 babies and 1 teacher.....and none of the babies can really swim.......and the teacher only has two arms.......are you getting where I'm going with this? 

But that's a decision we will make at the end of this current swim session, in another 10 weeks or so.

Back to my point - which was....?

Just simply, Micah loves swimming.  Really, he loves the water in general.  He has gotten very good at kicking his feet while he is "swimming" around picking up plastic colored balls and dropping them in the buckets on the side.  Part of his motivation is probably the fact that Miss Danielle is standing behind him tickling his feet, which naturally promotes kicking!  He now stands on the side of the pool and holds my fingers to jump in, where as he used to sit and I would pretty much plop him in.  He is getting better with making his "chipmunk cheeks" before he goes underwater and going higher up on the slide before sliding down to me.  Everybody in the pool - as well as most of the people outside of the glass walls in the waiting area - are subject to his shrieks of delight, deep belly laughs and LOUD LOUD LOUD squeals of excitement.  He is not a quiet child.  Good thing he's cute.

However, he has a hate-hate relationship with something new we tried at Swim Baby on Thursday: goggles.  Let me go on record as saying, NEVER GONNA HAPPEN.  Just as soon as I can get them on, he rips them off his head and chucks them to the bottom of the pool.  And the faces I got?  Wow.  Oh yeah, and floating on his back - not his favorite either.  While he could be resting and relaxing while I hold him up and sing to him... (meanwhile, he is supposed to be looking at all the froggies and the fishies and the colorful kites placed strategically on the ceiling and learning to love the feeling of floating on his back while water fills his ears)...instead he throws his left arm across my throat and tries to do this toddler wrestling/choke hold thing that is probably designed to make me sit him up but only results in my voice getting drastically higher.  Little stinker!

He did learn this past week that when one opens his/her mouth under the water, one gets a mouthful of pool water.  Gasp,  choke, gag. 

I'm proud of my little fishie and how far he has come in 9 short months.  It's one of the highlights of my week, that half hour with my little man in the water.  The time passes so fast.  Kinda like the last 15 months of my entire life?