I should be sorting laundry.
Ooops.
Instead I’m going to try to do a blog in fifteen minutes.
The Tackler is passed out. Cold. Pool time = a 99% chance of nap for him.
Hallelujah.
Lil Diva, thanks to new pool hours, didn’t go today. And while she didn’t nap at the gym, she didn’t sleep more than forty-five minutes when we got home. My guess is (based on the volume and tone of the wailing she did when she woke up) she’s cutting those two teeth I keep talking about.
Damn you, teething!
Not that you can tell at this exact moment. I put her slide back into place and she’s Queen of the Kangaroo Climber. She’s “talking” up a storm and squealing with glee. Last night (when I first put it back) she tried to say “Wheee!” as I helped her down the slide.
Computer Guru is currently supervising. Although he’d rather be napping today.
Wouldn’t we all?
I was worried about swim lessons this week. Prior to school starting, the pool had “summer” hours and opened at 10 AM for the kids. This allowed us to let The Tackler expend some energy prior to lessons so he could be more focused and not just want to play around. School started last week, so now the pool doesn’t open until noon, after his lessons.
It went surprisingly well!
He loves his lessons with Miss Beth! He looks forward to them. He listens to her. Even with a child joining class this week who wouldn’t put his face in the water (he won’t be joining that particular class again, thank goodness), The Tackler STILL did well.
I’m in awe, honestly. A month ago you would’ve thought he HATED the water because of the screaming tantrums he did with his old “teacher.” Back in This Blog, I feared even switching teachers would have zero impact on lessons and had given up hope.
I have never been so thrilled to be so horribly wrong.
If you ask him about Miss Beth he’ll say “She’s teaching me how to swim.” And she really, truly is. He can actually go about 5-6 feet on his own. He’s using his arms. He has his face in the water. Once he learns to keep his legs straight, he’ll be even faster. She even gets him to practice floating on his back which he HATES. 
I was planning on only having him take lessons for the summer (as family swim hours are diminished and I’m not sure how he will do ONLY getting a lesson and not play swim time), but since he’s improving every week, we’re going to leave him in lessons as long as we can. There’s another girl who The Tackler did a make up lesson with and we’ll probably be switching to her class. Because a year ago she was terrified of the water and wouldn’t put her face in. Today, she floated on her back for over a minute (previously it was more like twenty seconds tops).
And for the first time, I feel like The Tackler has found the one teacher who can help him do that. The teacher than can make him want to do that.
I wonder if she could make him want to clean up his play room too…
Updated 7-22-11: The Tackler has been taking lessons year round since this point. We moved him to semi-private lessons with one other girl (the one mentioned in this exact post) and 99% of the time they work fabulously together. He’s still with Miss Beth and we adore her.
