Swimming

We've been spending a lot of time at the pool. We go to our grandparents pool- which it's really nice- and spend a few hours every time we go.

Lately, I've been trying to spend some of that time as teaching time. I practice with both of the boys the basics of swimming, such as learning how to float, hold onto the side of the pool, hold your breath, blow bubbles, and going under water. The funny thing of all this, it's that they do all that stuff while they are taking a bath. I get nervous when they go under water because you never know, however, I've slowly letting go of that fear and let them submerge more, and it's paid off.

Yesterday, on our way to the pool I told them we were gonna start swimming without their life jackets on - a pool lifeguard once told us that it was better for kids to use these because the kids get use to use all their extremities and there is nothing interfering their movements like regular floaties, but everyone has their preference and I chose to believe him and have been using them without a problem-. So, while we were at the pool they really didn't use them. We swam pretty much the whole time with breaks in between. 

David napped for a good while, giving me the chance to practice with Anthony. And I have to say that he is doing great! He goes under water and is able to move forward all by himself. He, of course, doesn't stay under long, but the time he does it's very productive. We both get under water and come back out and we do it again and again. Break. Then some jumping off the side of the pool, head in the water, come back out and rest. We had a really good routine yesterday. I have to be super cautious because he already thinks he can "swim" and there were a couple of times he would get under without me knowing or seeing him, and of course we had a little talk about "you have to tell me before getting in the water, and preferably, wait on me to be IN the water so I can help you out", "stay on the steps, don't swim toward the middle because it's more difficult to hold on to the side" etc etc. He was so exited though, and so was I.

And with little David, well, our "baby" is pretty much fearless when it comes to jumping in the pool. He jumps in with a big grin, head under, and comes back out with a bigger grin. It makes me giggle. He is also doing very good. Blowing bubbles, submerging, holding his breath etc. All this takes a lot of practice, patience, consistency and time. I'm not expecting them to be swimming by tomorrow, but I will definitely help out as much as I can. It is an exiting stage, no doubt about that.