Corbin loves swimming, which is a good thing, because I have always been a fan of the pool. So I thought that it would be fun to let him take swimming lessons over at the community center this summer. They have a class for 18-months to 3-years-old, but a parent has to be in the water with them, which would have been hard with Makelle. So I just went ahead and enrolled him in the 3-5 years old class.
He had a TON of fun! We almost didn't get to go back after that first day because he threw a huge fit when it was time to go. Not good when you are holding a baby in one arm, and with your street clothes on trying to drag a screaming child out of the water with the other. Embarrassing! So when we got home he received a huge lecture and I told him we would try it one more time, but if he ever threw a fit again we were not ever going back to swimming lessons. And he was on his best behavior after that.
I really struggle with trying to discipline Corbin in the moment. He is a really good little boy and listens and obeys wonderfully if you sit him down ahead of time and explain things, what is going to happen, what your expectations are, etc. Then when he starts to act up you remind him what you talked about and he quickly redirects his actions, but if you can't prevent a melt down ahead of time, you may as well give up and drag him home before you try and reason with him or get him to calm down, because nothing seems to work once you hit that full blown tantrum. We've tried spanking, yelling, talking, singing, bribing, ignoring... nothing seems to work other than completely removing him and then talking about went wrong after he has calmed down on his own. Which is great that he can reflect on his actions and discuss his behavior and what not, he really is a good kid, but SOOO frustrating when you are out and he starts to throw a fit and there is no possible way to get him to stop without giving up whatever you are doing. I guess that's why they call it the terrible twos.
Anyway... two weeks later, he didn't come out of it being the world's best swimmer, but he actually ended with some pretty good skills considering his short attention span and lack of coordination. He can lower himself into deep water from the edge and scoot along the wall and then pull himself out unassisted. He is comfortable putting his head underwater and holding it for maybe 3 seconds or so at a time and of course blowing bubbles. He can't float on his back to save his life though, he refuses to relax and allow himself to just float there, so all the moving around causes him to sink every time. He will stand in water where he can touch the ground and jump out with his arms extended kicking like crazy and be able to glide maybe a foot before he goes under. We will have to keep working with him because in order to advance to the next level he has to do the back float for I think 3 seconds on his own and glide two body lengths on his own, so he isn't quite there yet, but I think he did pretty darn good for a 2-year-old.
The major goal was to get him comfortable in the water and not be afraid if his head goes under, so I consider it a success. We can now play in our pool and he learned enough basic arm movements and kicking so he can navigate the pool on his own with his floaties on, which frees me up to hold Makelle, so that is good.
Having almost no bone density and being nearly all fat... Makelle is actually pretty good at floating on her own :)
Everyday we went to swim lessons he could see the kiddie play area and water slides and ask to go play. They don't open the pool for public swimming until a couple hours after his lessons because there were other classes after his, so we took him home and made a picnic to eat in the park and then let him go back over to play. Before we went he kept talking non-stop about the slide, but once he got there he discovered a wheel to steer the boat and stood up there fighting off other kids to control that wheel the entire time. He kept telling Caleb, "shiver me timbers," over and over again. Which he then explained meant I will drive while you do down the slide, I think the slide became the plank and he was being a pirate and trying to do his dad in, but who really knows.
And finally out of swimming lessons came a love for showers. The boy hasn't taken a bath in weeks, ever since he discovered he could stand in the tub and warm water would rain down on him. Yesterday he was in there for so long he used up all the hot water (it was close to an hour) and got upset when I told him I couldn't fix it and he was just going to have to get out for now and try again later. Which he remembered and we continued the marathon shower a couple of hours later. Oh man, it is a good thing he is so cute.
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