Swimming and Safety Town

The two weeks right after school ended, were plenty busy for us. We would wake up early and pack our bags (swimming bag, get ready bag, lunch bag, and sometimes library bag). Then drop Nora and Kyla off at "Safety Town". Safety Town is a neat program that they do for the kids here in Dearborn. It is everyday for an hour and a half for two weeks. They teach the kids about every kind of safety from electrical to railroad to stranger danger.Everyday the girls got to ride trikes through a pretend town to learn traffic rules, they had lots of different special visitors, and came home with some kind of art project to remember what they learned everyday. The last day they had a little "graduation", the mayor passed out their certificates and then they got new bike helmets. I think it was definately worth it.


Then right after Safety Town we would head over to swim lessons. We thought we were smart by doing the first session of the summer, but the first week it was stormy off and on and the next week the pool heater broke so it was just plain freezing. We never actually had our lessons cancelled, but I kind of wished we had and gotten some makeup days out of it. The cold water really made the girls tighten up and not be very adventurous. I think they actually did better the first day than they did the last day. I don't think it was a total loss I am sure they remember some of the skills that they learned. The very last day one of my friends was so kind to let us borrow her girls' wet suits, that helped a lot. Nora's teacher was alright but he pushed her too hard so she didn't trust him and wouldn't do anything for him by the end. One day Nora's teacher came up told me a funny story. He said that they were practicing doing the crawl and after Nora swam to him he told her she needed to work on her arms. She said "No, I'm perfect!" Well at least she is confident. I don't think she understands that you really have to work and practice at something to be "perfect". She is getting to be a pretty good swimmer, but her cautious personality results in her hardly ever pushing her comfort zone. Right now she will swim under water and on top of the water for as long as she can hold her breath, but then puts her feet down. She will not be in depths that are much above her shoulders.Kyla's teacher was so awesome and sweet. She knew Kyla's name after the first day and they had so much fun playing and learning like crazy. Kyla is under the water a lot, so much that I had to tell her to shut her eyes under the water because she was getting totally bloodshot. She does have a problem with being a spaz and never really does arm strokes or good kicks, just really spastic doggy paddle.Myka and I had fun in the Mom and Tot class. She was definately the most outgoing in her class and was pretty much unafraid of the water, as long as there were no toys near her. She has had this thing about toys floating around in the bathtub and touching her. She did better by the end and would hold toys to play with but got very nervous if any were left free floating. Although she didn't like it very much, she wouldn't get too upset when I put her all the way under the water. Myka also spent a lot of time saving flying ants from the swimming pool. So one day at swim lessons Myka and I were walking around the super shallow area while Nora was on the deeper end of the kiddie pool working with her class. Myka saw her over there jumping off the edge of the pool into the water repeatedly. Myka looked at me very seriously and said in her so cute, bossy two year old voice, "Don't come with me O.K. don't come with me." I was a little surprised of her strong willednes and asked her where she was going with out me. She told me as she started walking out of the pool "I am going to jump in the pool with Nora, so don't come with me O.K." Luckily, I was able to talk her out of the crazy idea and told her I would take her over to the edge where she could jump into me. She is fearless in the water and has had so much fun with the zero depth pool that she can walk in. She still doesn't quite get the concept of it getting too deep for her to stay above the water as she walks out. I have to stay pretty close to her to grab her when she starts gulping.

After lessons we would usually shower and get ready, then hopefully go eat lunch at the park with Birgitte, Addie, and Rachel or if it was pouring go to one of our houses. The idea behind the plan was that after we eat lunch we would go back at 1:00 for open swim. We only ended up staying for open swim once or twice, because of the bad weather and freezing pool. Once I got the girls home and settled into quiet time I was pretty worn out. It was a nice and relaxing way to start the summer, Yah right!