Swim, fishy, SWIM!!!

Our little fish!

No, your eyes are not fooling you... that's little man Hayden swimming like a fish! He is loving the pool this year, and we couldn't be more proud of his swimming accomplishment! It is toddler swimming at it's finest! He's no pro or anything, but he can swim. We put him in swimming lessons at the beginning of the summer and then again a couple of weeks ago, and during that last session is when he officially started swimming on his own. It was the very last week of June. Ms, Kym was pretty amazing! Check it out...

You've gotta admit that's pretty awesome! And yes, that was a dive you saw in the middle of the video. Who knew you could teach a 3 year old to dive?!? Super cool! This was one of those 1 week long lessons where you go everyday for 30 minutes. It was really only about 20-25 minutes in the water each day, and by day 3 Hayden was already jumping off the diving board and swimming to the side by himself. It was pretty crazy. As a matter of fact, a couple of the clips from the video were from day 3 when Ms. Kym let Daddy, Sawyer and I watch for a few minutes at the end of class. Typically you do not get to watch them at all the first 4 days, but Hayden was pretty insistent on her letting us see him, so she obliged on day 3! We were shocked at his progress. I had imagined he would get better by taking this class, but I wasn't quite sure if I believed he would really swim. Let's just say I believe now. He did cry the first couple of days(honestly not very much), but by performance day(day 5) he was all smiles and ready to swim, swim, swim. There was no actual class on the last day, it was just a day for them to show off their new skills which was so great to get to see. So, in reality it was a 4 day lesson, but boy was that 5th day important. Hayden had told me every single thing they were going to do, in which order and how many times. He was very proud!:) Not only was it wonderful to get to see him, it was also great because Ms. Kym was able to tell me exactly what she had done during each exercise, and what I could do to continue with what she had taught him. I should note here that I was very reluctant to sign him up for this class because I pretty much had to sign his life away and not watch his lessons, but boy am I glad I bit the bullet and did it anyways. What a payoff. Now I just hope it sticks! By the looks of it, he's not forgetting it any time soon. Since the lessons have been over all he has wanted to do is swim. Every day I hear "Want to go to my pool today and swim?" He loves it.

Climbing up the ladder after swimming back to the side ALL.BY.HIMSELF!
Can you tell how much he is loving the swimming life?!?

Now you would think this new swimming thing has made my life much easier right?!? Well, not exactly. There are things that are easier(like not having to lug around 30 pounds!), but new challenges that have come up as well. We used to spend most of our time in the kiddie pool/zero entry part of our pool, where the boys could walk around and we could sit and watch and play with them. Although that wasn't always easy, neither is having two that want to do different things. Now all Hayden wants to do at the pool is go to the deep end and jump in and swim, which proves to be a little difficult when you also have a non-swimmer with you as well. At least Sawyer is a good sport and will sit on the side and watch his big brother for a little bit...

And occasionally squirt him with the water gun as he takes off!

Sweet little Sawyer!

Having fun splashing!

Taking his turn at the running jump-in!

I'm sure they will be jumping in together and out swimming their Momma in no time! Although that will make my pool life a little easier, I'm certainly not trying to rush it. Y'all know I like them little!:) Check out this picture of the three of us coming down the slide...

Weeeeeeeeeee!

This was one of those days where I had taken them to the pool and Daddy had to be at work, but they were just dying to go down the slide. Although Hayden could probably do this by himself, he still like for me to go with him, so our only option was to go all together. It was one of our crazier moments, but of course they loved it. I think they would have done it a million times if I'd have had the energy! Those stairs and super fast slide can be a killer! This last video is of Hayden at our pool a few days after he officially started swimming. His favorite thing to do right now is throw his ball in the water and then jump in and swim after it! It looks like it's going to be one wet summer for us!!! Good thing we're headed to the beach at the end of the week!:)