Dentist and Swim Lessons

 We have been home from Disneyland for 3 days and I've been itching to blog about our trip but since there are things to be documented from before Disneyland, I'll have to wait.

The kids had their bi-annual dentist appointments last week. It was a hectic day since I babysit 2 extra kiddos (ages 10 months and 4 years). My kids ended up being 4 rooms away from each other and it was tricky deciding who to stay with during their apointment and who to check on periodically.

At first, I chose to stay with Spidey so I sent Petey down the hall by herself. I figured since this was his first real cleaning, I should make sure he didn't get scared.

 Boy, was I wrong! That boy couldn't stop talking and giggling and had the greatest time with his cleaning. Don't you just love the pillow they put under his legs because he was so small in the chair?

 One of the times I checked on Petey, she seemed more nervous and quiet than her brother so I ended up staying in with her the rest of the time.

Unfortunatly, Petey has 2 cavities. One was unpreventable but the other is from not flossing. Oops. :( I'm nervous to get those cavities filled but we'll see how it goes. Her appointment isn't until next week.

The same day of their dentist appointment, my kiddos started swim lessons.

 Mr. B, the 4 year old I babysit, did really well and has loved going to lessons. He is more nervous when we go to my parents' pool so I was worried he would cry but he has been so brave!

 Spidey is the baldy raising his hand in this picture. I've been pleasantly surprised with him. He hasn't cried or gotten too nervous during lessons. The only problem is that he has a hard time listening to directions. He keeps splashing when his instructors ask him not to and it's been hard for me to just sit back and let them try and be the authority and not jumping in and telling him to stop. Swim lessons haven't taught him as much swimming, which I expected, but they seem to be good for him to learn about other authority figures that he needs to listen to.

At home, Spidey is a fish. He swims at his grandparents pool with no floaties but can't quite get his breathing right so I still have to be right next to him. I expect him to be semi-swimming and fully floating on his back by the end of the summer. He gets braver every day and has started freaking out less when I let go of him while he's floating on his back in the water.

Now let's talk about this sweet little girl. Since she was fully swimming last year, I signed her up for swim team this year. I was confident that she would do fine but I was most assuredly WRONG! The reason there are no pictures from her first week is because I was either comforting her or hiding from her as she cried. She was so intimidated by all of the kids on swim team and she didn't feel comfortable swimming across the pool by herself, even though she can technically do it. Last Thursday was the latest day I could get my full refund and so I went ahead and pulled her out. It just wasn't good for either of us.

Now that she's not on swim team, we try to swim at grandma's as often as possible. In just a week, she has re-learned all of her swimming from last year and seems confident. Even though I do watch her in the pool, this is the first year I'm not worried about her drowning. She can breathe on her own while swimming and knows to float if she gets tired. Yesterday, I sat on the side and just watched her swim around the whole pool. She is a fish, that girl! I want to get some videos of her swimming but I haven't done so yet. Maybe soon. :)

This summer is starting out nicely. I feel like we have had so much fun already and I'm ecited for more swimming, going to the movie theater every week, swim lessons, and whatever else this last summer has to offer before my Lil Miss starts school.

She's a fishy fish!

I know. You're sick of the swimming videos. But humor me for another minute---or don't read any further.
Yesterday, I challenged Petey to swim the entire length of the pool. We practiced it side by side a couple of times and then she was just doing it by herself!

I will say that ever since she got the hang out of coming up for breath when swimming, she gets kind of excessive and likes to come up for breath every two seconds. It makes her go a lot slower but hey, it's better than her not breathing enough! :)

 I'm a pretty darn proud mom.
Swim lessons are over after this week and I'm REALLY glad. After they refused to move her up to the next class, I got a little bit tired of sending her but there is a stupid cancellation fee so I didn't want to pull her out two weeks ago. She has showed them that she is capable of moving up but for some reason, when we got the "report card" at the end of the session, they marked that she can't do some of the things that I have VIDEOS of her doing.
And I know, I probably seem like a crazy mom right now but I just believe that if I'm going to pay for someone to teach my kid something, I want my child to be challenged so they actually learn something.
So anyway, I'm just glad it's over. And next week, she starts dance classes again! I will take sitting in an air conditioned building to watch her learn something over sitting in the hot sun for 30 minutes where she learns nothing any day!

And that's how Suze sees it.

The Monday Brags: Back Floats

Oh Mondays, how I love using you for some serious bragging time.

Are you sick of "swimming" brag posts yet?

No?

Ok, then I'll continue.

Petey completed her first session of swim lessons last Thursday.

I have been so proud of how well she's done.

She's been a good listener and has been trying so hard to do everything they've asked.

Last Tuesday, while swimming at my parents house, we were practicing back floats and I let go of Petey's back...and she just kept on floating!

I was so excited for her to show her instructors at swim class and they were pretty proud of her.

I finally got a video on Saturday of her back floats but that will be at the end of this post.

My other "proud" (not-so-proud) moment was from her last day of swim class.

Yeah...that is supposed to be a more modest swimsuit. She had jumped in the water and the whole top came up and those bottoms were already low to begin with but they were A LOT too low and it took me a while to get her attention and tell her to pull them up! Little girl had her whole belly exposed, along with a great deal of bum crack. Oops! Guess we wont be using this swimsuit for lessons anymore.

So here is the video. Have I mentioned how super awesome my child is? Well, I can mention that today because it's bragging day. Also, please excuse my annoying voice. I was counting to see how long she'd stay floating.

And I'll leave you with one more video from that day. She is also doing really well with kicking and swimming her back. I LOVE this girl so much and I'm so proud of how big she is getting.
And that's how Suze brags.

Proud Mommy Moments: Swimming Lessons

Since I missed my Monday Brags this week, I decided to link up with one of my blogger friends, Emmy Mom for her Proud Mommy Moments.

This week, Petey started swim lessons again.
Do you remember last year? The first week, she cried every lesson and hated getting in the water with her teachers.
So we've been talking about it the past couple of months and she has been beyond excited. But I still wasn't sure how she would do once we got there.
On a side note, in the pool at my parents' house, she can almost swim by herself. Well technically, she can swim by herself but she doesn't remember to breathe when she comes up so we still have work to do. :)
Anyway, Tuesday was the first swim lesson of the summer (she's doing lessons all summer long).

Of course, I had to sneak in a picture of what her brother does while she swims. He colors, or reads, or cheers for her while she swims.

This was the very first day of lessons. As you can see, a little nervousness ensued and Petey wasn't quite ready to get in the water.

But those nerves turned into giggles when she got comfortable with her teachers and soon, she was peeking her head up to grin at me.

It did make me laugh when one of her instructors (who clearly was doing this for the first time) said, "Ok, do you want to get in the water and do back floats with me?" And Petey calmly replied, "No, thanks." and he just walked away, not knowing what to do. ha! I'm sure he'll learn from the other instructor who then went over and said, "Ok, time to do your back floats!" and just put Petey in the water. Our girl didn't even complain. I think she just figured if they were giving her a choice, she was deciding not to float on her back. :)

This last picture is from yesterday. She did SO well! Not only did she willingly lay on her back and practice kicking across the water but she kept telling the instructors, "I can swim by myself! Let go and let me swim to the side." and they did, and she did swim to the side by herself, and they were impressed.

I'm so proud to have such a big, brave girl! I was regretting my decision to sign her up for swim lessons every darn week of the summer because it's hot and some days, I know I just won't want to leave my air conditioned home but after seeing how much she loves her lessons and how much she's learning, it is worth it. :)

And that's how Suze brags about her super awesome children.