Aqua babies

We are a swimming bunch this summer. J is taking evening lessons 4 times a week for the next month and a half and Baby E will join him in a week for a month of similar lessons. Both boys are also taking lessons twice a week in the mornings for the next three weeks or so. All of which means we are all in the pool an awful lot, particularly by my standards. I really don't like to take more than one shower a day, but chlorine has a way of forcing me in, as does making lunch or getting the kids ready for bed in a wet swimsuit--yuck!

Once again this year, after a day or two of fear, J has become utterly fearless in the water, which makes lessons with him very difficult. At least this year we have discovered that he can stand with his mouth above water in the three feet depth, so if we can just get him to put his feet down when his bravura outweighs his skills, we know he won't drown. This is small consolation as he hurls himself off the side and then turns around under water and tries to "swim" back to the side "all by myself." Or when he acts like he's going to jump to me and then runs down the side of the pool and jumps somewhere else entirely, making Mommy sprint through the water, discovering swimming speeds of which she didn't know she was capable! We have also discovered that with water wings and a pool noodle or even just with a pool noodle alone, J is fairly self sufficient in the pool...at least until he gets bored and jettisons the noodle for some unforeseen reason and starts to drown. It's exciting times, if you get what I'm sayin'!

Baby E, on the other hand, is content to hang inside a small inner tube and float around as long as someone is near him, which of course we always are, unless we are diving to the bottom of the pool to save his brother from himself. I think E will enjoy his own lessons, but we shall see how well I can handle both of them at the same time since they are both in the same Water Babies class right now. Next year, J graduates to Aqua Tots and must be alone with the instructor, and I will get to spend time alone with E, but for now it's two on one in the pool. More excitement coming soon!