Today is Lanie's 15 month birthday, and yes, her mommy still made her go to swimming lessons! She did great, more work on practicing the same skills - locating the wall, floating on her back, flipping over from back to front and front to back, and even more underwater swimming. She's still upset for most of the lesson, but very happy to accept the reward sticker that Miss Inga gives her when she gets out of the pool! Today during one of her crying spells, she called out for her "Daddy" - and thankfully Daddy wasn't there to rescue her, because her lesson would have been over for the day! : )
It's already week 2 of swimming lessons! Today, Lanie did a little more floating on her back, some practicing flipping from front to back, some underwater swimming, and of course, some more crying. I thought that she was a little better with the crying today...maybe?.... and she stopped crying as soon as she was out of the pool. She was happy to sit and watch the other students who's lessons come after her.
Today was more practice floating on her back, flipping over, holding her breath, and just practicing getting the sequence together. Lanie seemed excited to get to the pool today, we were waiting for lesson time, looking at the ducks that come up around the pool area.... and then Inga, her instructor came over to say "Hello." Thats when Lanie's meltdown started.... so she's already associating Inga with "not so much fun in the pool." She never stopped crying until she was out of the pool and in my arms. Here's hoping next week things will lighten up a bit! : )
Lanie's 3rd Day of Lessons went well. Inga worked with her more on getting her to hold onto the wall, holding her breath when she goes under, floating on her back, and then going from back to a "little swim" to get her to the side of the pool. Eventually, this is the sequence that she will learn to perfect as the lessons progress over the next few weeks. From a floating on her back position, to a face down "little swim" position with a few kicks, then back to a floating position, until she can get herself to the side of the pool, or be rescued. It's hard to believe that she can even be learning anything at all as much crying as she is doing, but as we watch the lessons that come after hers I am reassured that all of the new students her age react this way, Lanie does seem to be a little more verbal than the others, and a little more dramatic! : )
Today's Swimming Lessons went pretty much the same as yesterday. Inga worked with Lanie again on getting her to grab the side of the pool and pull herself up out of the water (the technique that you will see in the top video clip). Also, today, she worked on getting Lanie to hold her breath when she went under to minimize the water that she swallows! She did well with this which you can see a little of in one of the video clips (the lower video clip), and Lanie also surprised her that she already knew how to kick....Yea, I've known she was good at that before she was even born, and if you've ever seen her mad, you know she can kick... and as you can see from the video, the lessons DO make her a little MAD! Again, the Instructor assured me that this was normal, and that the first week, sometimes two weeks of lessons were like this and then after that they begin to enjoy it ---- sounds like I'm in for some fun for another week or so! : ) In both video clips I also got a shot of Luke, another ISR student who is 14 months old, his lessons are right after Lanie's and his responses are very much the same as hers, just not quite as dramatic!
Today was Lanie's first ISR (Infant Swimming Resourse) Lesson. It was quite an experience for the both of us. She didn't mind getting into the water, or going to the instructor, whom she had never met, she just had her own idea about what she wanted to do, and it didn't include the lesson for the day. Her instructor, Inga, was very patient, and Lanie really did well - although she cried throughout most of the lesson (her instructor assured me that was normal)! She learned to hold and pull herself up using her arms at the side of the pool which was pretty amazing to watch. She even held her breath several times when she went under, which is a skill that she will certainly have to perfect as she learns to swim over the next few weeks. Her lessons are weekdays for the next 6 weeks, so I will try and keep the blog updated as she progresses!
I've finally taken a minute to post a few videos of Lanie walking! She's getting better and better every day. She definantely was not one of those babies who just woke up one day and decided that she was going to walk, and started walking. She has been slowly teasing us with a few steps here and there for months - but finally, she has decided that walking is her prefered method of transportation now (other than mommy's hip). And as you can see in one of the videos, her favorite toy is a set of golf clubs that her daddy is helping her to become a pro at using. It's the first game we play when we get up, and the last game we play before bed!
Today Lanie and I took a trip over to Fernandina Beach for the day. She had a great time, chasing and feeding the seagulls and playing in the sand. She ate more sand than I could put in a bucket, but she didn't seem to mind. She enjoyed her snacks and juice right along with the sand on her hands. No matter how desperately I tried not to take home sand, the majority of it came home with us anyway. It was worth it though.... she took a nice long 2 1/2 hour nap after the beach trip and I was able to enjoy a chapter or two in the book that I took along with us to the beach. So much for those relaxing days on the beach that I used to have !
