Adventures in Swim Land

Erin's swim class ended today, and I must say I'm a little sad to be done with the lessons. I really enjoyed our time together in the pool. Erin and I loved her teacher, Ms. Becky, and I just can't say enough about all of the staff and the heated, indoor pool at Tom's Dive and Scuba here in Austin.

Considering that Erin had never been in the pool before, we were worried that she wouldn't enjoy swimming. Luckily, that was a needless concern. Erin continued to enjoy the water and the pool. The only time she didn't enjoy it was when she developed a yeast infection from the antibiotics she'd been on. I think the chlorine stung on her raw bottom. Luckily it cleared up very quickly with an anti-fungal diaper cream.

Other than that classes went very smoothly. I'm amazed at how much Erin learned in just four weeks, especially given how young she is. She became really comfortable in the pool. By the last class, she was floating on her front or back (with help to support her), and had learned how to splash, hold her breath under water, blow bubbles, and kick her feet. She never really got the hang of scooping her arms, but she would occasionally scoop the right one.

On the last class, she even was comfortable enough to play in an inflatable raft, put on a pair of goggles, and use a life vest! She grew so much in such a short time she even had to get a bigger swim suit!


One of the things that really impressed me was that Erin learned how to sit and wait for me so we both could get safely in and out of the pool! Needless to say the commands "wait for Mommy" and "1,2,3, go" have come in very handy in the bathtub and when getting out of the stroller, and I plan to continue to use them.

I think Erin's favorite parts of swim class were playing with the cup of water, being dunked, and gliding back and forth between me and Ms. Becky. If you asked Erin, she might say the best part was watching all the other kids or waving "bye, bye" at the end. We met some really neat people in the class and look forward to more water adventures with Erin.

Water baby

Erin started swim lessons on Tuesday. Since Kurt loves to scuba dive, and I love to be in the water, one might assume that taking her was purely selfish on our part. After all, if Erin loves the water, that means we probably get to enjoy our own hobbies more often. However, that was not our motivation. While it would be flattering for our daughter to express an interest in the same things her parents like, the real reason we enrolled her is because we truly hope she gets as much enjoyment out of swimming as we do.

The day started out on an ominous note, with Erin being very uncooperative while I struggled with putting on her swim diaper. I tried to keep my cool by telling her that it was the precursor to something really fun. She was more interested in crawling away.

However, when it came time to go in the pool, Erin was wide-eyed, curious, and full of smiles. I had a great time in the pool with her, and she seemed to enjoy herself too. In fact, of the four infants in the class, Erin,despite being the youngest, was the only one who did not cry or go into hysterics at some point (not even when she got splashed or dunked under the water). She readily went to the teacher and even squealed with laughter a few times.

I didn't want to project my own desires onto Erin's experience, but when her teacher, Miss Becky, came up to us later and said that Erin was so comfortable in the water, it really confirmed how happy Erin was in the pool. Then she said that Erin is a true "water baby". I'm really glad that the most traumatic part of the swim lesson was the diaper change. I only hope that all the rest of our classes prove to be just as much fun for both of us.