Swim lessons

Erik had swim lessons tonight.  The instructor has been having the kids put float noodles at their waists and swim the short length of the pool, sometimes on their stomachs and sometimes on their backs.  Today she had them basically race back and forth several times.  Joe and I were very proud of Erik.  He was persistent, didn't get frustrated when he wasn't the fastest and listened well to the instructions.  When he was swimming forward, he often had his head up out of the water and was more doggy paddling, but when he put his face in the water and actually scooped with his hands he was swimming pretty fast!  Then on his back, he popped his head up every few seconds to make sure he wasn't about to crash into the wall, but again when he was actually swimming, he was really fast.

His albatross has always been jumping into the pool.  He doesn't have a lot of trust.  Today, the instructor had them swim along the side to the deep end, get out and form two lines.  Then she had them jump in two at a time and swim the short length of the pool in races at the deep end!  The final task was to jump off the starting block at the deep end and swim to the shallow end.  She held his hand while he jumped in, but Erik actually jumped in and swam the whole length of the pool.  That's easily the farthest he's ever swam before.  He was very proud of himself.  The video is sideways but it's fun to see him go for it.