Swimming Lessons

Yes... EllaKate is taking swimming lessons from Amelia's tennis coach- Coach Harris. We talked about it all day yesterday and she was very excited! She and Rosemary waited by the pool for the lessons to start. I found a hiding spot so I could watch and not hinder the lesson. The very first thing they did was take her out in the pool and dunk her. Can I just say my stomach lurched into my throat as she came up sputtering, "I want my mommy!!!" at the top of her lungs??? She continued crying for a minute or so as she sat on the steps and then began to play with the rings and other children took a turn. It was the same pattern with each one. She practiced kicking with a swim ring and did very well. She really does LOVE the water- you have seen that with our lake pictures but she doesn't like to go under- so that will be the biggest hurdle during the lessons. Oh.. and the last thing they did was take her to the diving board and drop her off to the other teacher. EllaKate was crying when she went off and came up crying. I had huge tears in my eyes and told Rosemary I was about to cry- she said, "Don't Mom, she is fine." The tears still came but I am very thankful for what EllaKate will learn over the next two weeks. Our new house has a pool so it is very important that she has the lessons.

After dinner, we went down to our new house- 1 mile away- and began working in our yard. There are lots of trees and shrubs to be pruned so we got an early start. The more we get done now, the less there will be to do when we get there. We filled the back of Scott's truck many times with limbs. Afterwards, we let the girls swim in the pool and I didn't take any pictures. I will do that tonight.

This morning, we watched a slideshow of the pictures from her lesson yesterday. She is already saying, "I don't want swimming lessons"- 5000 times. Coach Harris said he has had kids cry 7 out of the 10 days but not every day so there is hope. I remember the big girls taking lessons and they did the same thing. You would think I had this mom thing down by now but it is a journey, right?