Yay for Swimming Lessons!

Now, I'm not going to lie...I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with swimming lessons.

I love that the girls get to learn how to be more comfortable in the water and learn how to swim!

I love the chance to meet other people in town!

I love bumping into friends at the pool!

I love seeing the girls be brave!

I love the half hour that Leah and Maggie are in swimming lessons, and Gracie is home with Aaron.  I sit by the pool.  By myself.  And I cheer when the girls do something hard for them!

I do not love constantly changing people's clothes.

I do not love dealing with wet things.

I do not love that a swimming lesson that lasts a half an hour really takes up over an hour of our time with getting ready and getting settled back at home.

I do not love feeling like a slave to our pool schedule (Leah and Maggie from 11:30-noon and Gracie from 5:00-5:30).

It really is worth it, though! 

Because, just look at them!

Leah practicing her form for "diving" into the water.

A year ago she never ever would have done this!  Let's just say that nobody would ever claim that Leah is a risk taker.

She was so happy!

I was SO proud of her for being brave!  Last year she didn't even want to go down the water slide with a life jacket on.  It's so cool to see her grow in confidence.

And this girl...if folding yourself in half was a skill that needed to be checked off a list, she'd have a big ol' check mark by her name!

I wasn't sure how well Maggie would do with swimming lessons.  The last 2 years she's been in the parent/child class, so this was her first year without Aaron or me in the water with her.  She has only been confident and brave...

and happy!  She gives me a big thumbs up after completing a skill and tells me, "Mom, it's your chance to relax...you should read a book!"

I did bring a book, but it's way more fun to watch her!

Maggie's swimming teacher is amazing!  There have been swimming teachers that I was fairly certain didn't actually like children, but that's not the case with Anna.  She is amazing!

And as you can see, Maggie is great at the noodle assisted kicking and arm scooping business :)

Gracie is in swimming lessons, too, but I am in the water with her, hence the lack of pictures.

Her favorite things?  Jumping in, picking toys up from the bottom of the pool (shallow end, of course), and singing.

Less than awesome things?  Floating...front or back.  Ain't nobody got time for that...especially not Gracie!

So, I'll take the minor monkey wrenches that swimming lessons throw into our life, because the results have been really exciting!

A big thumbs up from Maggie, too <3