Swim Lessons. Sort of.

Today was nuts.  I've been running around like a crazy person all day long with very little time to spare.  So I finally got home, jumped on a conference call, inhaled dinner, and jumped in the car with Babe-O to go to the Y for her first swimming lesson.

I hadn't really given the lessons much thought in advance, so I'm not sure what I was expecting: maybe a slightly chilly Yasmine Bleeth with a kickboard standing in a the shallow end surrounded by other parents with babies wearing water wings.  I figured Yasmine would have the kids doing kicks and putting their faces in the water and all that sort of thing.  

I never did the swim lessons thing, so I had no idea.

Anyway...Yasmine wasn't there and the whole deal was not what I expected.

The instructor kicked things off by saying (I think, it was echoey in there) that she is a very quirky lady who likes to sing songs.  Then she proved it.  Here's how it all went down:

Big circle, Old McDonald

We started out signing Old McDonald in a big circle.  I wasn't thrilled with the activity, but put my heart in it for the sake of giving the whole deal a fair shake.  Babe-O was amused.

Big circle, going around it

After that, the parents all pranced around the big circle holding the kids up out of the water.  Babe-O was amused.

Big circle, Hokey Pokey

Yeah...more singing.  Babe-O started getting less amused and seemed vaguely aware that we could be doing much cooler things in a swimming pool than sing-a-longs.

Line up!

Sweet.  This seemed more in line with what I was thinking.  We all lined up along one wall and were told to head over to the other side, letting the kids kick.  Well...kicky-feet happen to be Babe-O's specialty.  She started kicking away and then seemed to feel her racing instinct kick in when she glanced to either side and saw all the other kids kicking their way towards the opposite wall.  She turned up the heat and splashed her little feet like nothing I'd ever seen her do before.  I made sure that her effort was rewarded by being first to the wall and she squealed the whole way, kicking up a big, frothy wake behind her.

Humpty Dumpty

This one was right up Babe-O's alley, too.  All the kids perched on their butts on the edge of the pool and (while singing the humpty dumpty song) hopped off the edge into the water.  We do this one together all the time and it's probably Babe-O's favorite thing about the pool at this point.  She's learning to count to three (as in 1, 2, 3..GO!) so she ignored the singing and instead held up her finger for "1..." and bounced in place until we got to three and she could leap off with a little squeal.  

Arm Paddling

So then they gave us these squishy little balls and had us toss them in the water and let the kids chase after them.  The idea was that they would paddle their arms to get to the ball.  Babe-O didn't seem to get the idea of the arm thing and we didn't have much luck with the paddling thing.

I like...Scotch

Then back in the circle, or as I've grown to call it, "oh shit, back in the circle."  More singing.  This time, to learn everyone's name, we had to sing a song.  One kid would hold a ball and we'd sing "I like ButtFace (or whatever his name is), ButtFace is my friend.  I like ButtFaaaaace...and ButtFace is my friend."  Then on to the next kid, passing the ball off.  There were probably fifteen kids to go through and then when we finally got to the end of the list, we started over to learn the parents names.  It was a little weird.  Oh, and the passing the ball thing is supposed to teach sharing.  Only one kid freaked when it was time to give up the ball and it wasn't mind, so bonus.

So that was it.  I guess I really did enjoy the actual swimming stuff, but all the standing around and singing drove me up the wall.  Babe-O clearly got impatient with it, too.  After the lesson was over she and I swam for a while more and she had a good time.  She ate like a horse when we got home, shoveling down a bowl of this awesome cinnamon flavored Total cereal that Amy found.  It's like a fairly healthy version of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, which if you aren't familiar is one of the great culinary accomplishments of my generation.  

I'm not sure how many swim lessons there are going to be, but we'll be back next week.  Hopefully things will progress a little more as we go, but either way, it gets us out of the house and into the pool at least on Wednesdays.  That's a good thing.