Flying Barrel Of Monkeys

We’re halfway through week two of swimming lessons and they are going great! The other boys in MonkeyBoy’s class all wear goggles and MonkeyBoy thought he needed a pair for himself. I wanted to keep the number of “crutches” to a minimum and wasn’t planning to buy him goggles since I didn’t think he really needed them at this stage. But then over the weekend we all went swimming and MonkeyMan shared his goggles and MonkeyBoy happily started dunking his head. A quick trip to the sporting goods store and MonkeyBoy is a proud owner of his own pair of goggles.

I think the goggles must have magical powers. The first day of class after the purchase, and MonkeyBoy wouldn’t do anything the instructors asked because he was too busy bobbing up and down in the water and giggling. That afternoon I took MonkeyBoy to our neighborhood pool to practice his lessons, and lo and behold the kid can swim. We spent two-thirds of our two hours at the pool under water, mostly waving at each other and smiling. MonkeyBoy asked me to take him to the bottom of the pool so that he could walk, and I obliged. He thought he was pretty hot stuff and yelled out “look at me” to every other child around. I was a little freaked out with his new-found abilities and made sure to keep an eye on him at all times to make sure he’d resurface each time he submerged.

Tonight I took him back to the neighborhood pool at his request, and he took his swimming abilities even further. He jumped off the pool ledge into the deep end, turned himself around, and kicked/wiggled/swam his way back to the ledge.

My goal is to have him swimming independently by next summer so that it’ll be easier to watch him and the new baby. Looks like maybe he’s on his way!