3 Little Fishies In A Itty Bitty Pool

I think if we had enrolled LMJ in swim lessons a year ago her learning to swim would have been much easier, but I doubt it would have been as entertaining. This morning was her very first swim lesson at the YMCA, and watching her in a group situation is teaching me a lot about my baby girl. She really loves the water, but only as long as she feels she’s in complete control of what’s going on. She doesn’t have a problem participating with a group of kids, but she also doesn’t feel any need to be part of a group. If it looks fun, she's up for it. If it doesn’t look fun, she isn’t. She got in the pool with her mom holding her and had a lot of fun kicking and singing and walking around in a circle. She had fun kicking on the floaty board, but then it came time to go underwater and she was not well for it. She loves watching me do it. She loves watching her mom do it. If she’s asked she’ll say she loves doing it, right up until her chin hits the water. We kinda, sorta, tricked her into going under the water for less than a second. She wasn’t even under long enough for all of her hair to get wet, but when she came up she was not happy. She said, “Dry! Home!” Playtime was over. The only problem was that we still had fifteen minutes left to go in the lesson. We averted a Chernobyl situation be letting her sit on the side of the pool and kick, which is her favorite thing to do. This break in the action gave MJ some time to reflect on the lack of teaching professionalism by Cory the lifeguard, who was teaching the class, vis-a-vis his lack of preparation in learning the words to the songs he was asking us to sing. He admitted he didn’t know all the words to Ring Around The Rosy. I pointed out that Cory was a college kid making minimum wage, and MJ’s reaction was basically, “So?!?” On the way out of the pool we tricked LMJ into going under one more time and had a repeat of her first reaction - second verse, same as the first, a little bit louder, and a little bit worse. DRY!!! HOME!!! She doesn't know the word "now" yet, but as soon as she does I'm sure it will be one of her favorites. Anyway, we enjoyed the swim lesson, and we’re looking forward to next week.

I really, really don’t want to be this parent, but LMJ was so much cuter than all of the other babies, and there were some very cute babies. It’s just that she’s playing at a different level. I try to take a step back and look at the situation objectively, but it doesn’t make a difference. She’s the LeBron James of two year old cuteness. That's just hard science.