Swimming lessons

Every Thursday afternoon Katie and Allie have swimming lessons at Wise Swim School in Apple Valley.  Allie has always been a bit better at swimming than Katie is.  I think that some of Allie's spunk helps her be a bit more competitive.  Katie also had a bit of a bad experience with a somewhat aggressive swim teacher at the end of summer and ever since that experience she has not wanted anyone to let go of her in the water.  So last Thursday as we were leaving the house to go swimming, Katie told me that she was not going to get in the water and swim that day.  I was a bit miffed and I told her that she needed to swim but she told me over and over that she was not going to get wet.  I asked a lot of questions like if she liked swimming and if she wanted to swim like all of her friends and she said that she liked to swim but she only wanted to swim with me and not anyone else.  I think as a parent this was probably one of the most difficult parenting decisions that I had to make.  I didn't want to force her in the water and really scare her yet I wanted her to know that at swimming lessons we swim and not sit on the sidelines.  I also know that I have days where I am just not in a mood to do things, so maybe she was having one of those days, who knows?  Needless to say, she did not swim on Thursday.  Allie did a great job!  There was a substitute teacher at lessons that day who was very aggressive and Ms. Allie did superb!  She swam at least 10 yards on her own, floated on her back for about 20 seconds with no help and jumped into the pool and swam about 5 yards on her own.  I was so proud of her!  I am hoping that Katie swims this week.. We have had numerous conversations about how she needs to swim and she promises that she will.  Maybe she was just having an off day? Let's hope it is as easy as that!

Here are some pictures of awesome Allie in the pool!