Swim Class

Teddy loves the water. He's the kid who tries to climb into the bathtub with all his clothes on because there's water in there. (Thankfully, for the most part, he's past the "climb in, climb out, climb in, climb out" phase that left Dave looking like he'd taken a bath with his clothes on as well.) He always gets extremely excited to be at a pool, which results in him flailing around, which is a spectacular combination when he's wet and slippery.

His neurologist, along with some of his therapists, have recommended getting him into the water as often as possible to help with his development. He's too young for the classes through the local rec department (and that water is so chilly I really don't like the idea of endless parent/child classes). So we started him in parent/child swim class at the local YMCA.

I was the lucky one to take him to the first round of swim lessons. That's six entire lessons. I dreaded going to the first lesson, where he ended up puking because he tried to drink the entire pool a few too many times. Let's just say he's not afraid to get his face wet. Then there was the time he almost knocked me over and the instructor reached out to catch me. (It's not my fault the kid is close to 1/3 my size. As other moms with children with hypotonia have said, it's not that they're not strong. They can fling their body weight better than most.) He didn't want to bear his weight to stand in the water much of the time, but he got a lot of OT in with the splash area. And his excitement every single time, especially that last time where we got to use the big slide, made it worth it.

Still, when it came time for the second round of swim lessons, it was Dave's turn to wrestle Teddy. (I felt I had done one round of parent/child swim lessons with each child, so I was due a break.) He dreaded going as much as I did to the first lesson, but at least Teddy didn't puke or knock him over. After the first class, he was much happier to go ... or at least dreaded it a lot less ... because he saw how much Teddy enjoyed it.

Teddy finished his last class this week and absolutely loved his first game of duck, duck, goose. He also gave Dave a run for his money because he was so incredibly excited to go down the slide. (See, that's progress that he recognized what climbing the stairs to the slide meant!). He had a wonderful time.

Did he pass with flying colors? Heck no!

We've never called him Theo. Other than that, pretty awesome report!

Did we expect him to? Nope.

Would I love to find a special needs swim class, so he could get the therapeutic benefits of the water with his peers instead of quickly becoming the oldest in the class by a long shot? Yeah, that would be nice.

Will I be getting into my swimsuit for the next round of swim lessons? Perhaps I should lay off the ice cream and focus on my half-marathon training.