Bathing Beauty, pt 2

Well, folks, no one can accuse us of depriving Katie of water-based frolicking and fun. Due to a weird turn of events, we took THREE swimming lessons last week!  On the upside, we are now locker-rooming like pros. (Almost.) On the downside, that's a LOT of chlorine for one week!  Their pool is unbelievably hyper-chlorinated. This is a good thing, as it's used for kids' swimming lessons all day long, every day of the week. But wow, do I reek of the stuff afterwards.

Anyway - I guess the turn of events isn't that weird. We were signed up for a Tuesday/Thursday class, and after Thursday's lackluster lesson and Katie nearly falling asleep in the car on the way home, I decided that 10:40-11:10 is way too close to naptime. I called and transferred us to the earliest class of the week, 10am on Fridays. Which meant, sigh, another day in the pool. Personally, I've had enough chlorine to last at least another 6 months, but instead we get to do it again for the next 6 Fridays.

That's ok. Friday's teacher is SO much better than the Tuesday/Thursday one!  Tues/Thurs was like April from Parks & Rec, and Friday's is more like Leslie. For swimming lessons, or frankly, anything having to do with small children, you want a Leslie.  She was cheerful and smiling and seemed to really enjoy encouraging the little ones to swim. I can't recall if the other one smiled at all. I know I never saw her teeth!

Now that I'm a seasoned (ahem) veteran of the swimming lesson experience, I've noticed a couple of things.

1) Some moms are young and hot. Others are like me: mid-thirties and not. It's totally unfair that we have to get into swimsuits and get in a pool together.

2) Some babies - most babies, it would seem - love the water. Other babies love the water and don't mind putting their faces/heads in it. Katie is not one of those babies. She loves being twirled in the water, jumping into my arms in the water, bouncing in the water - but go near her face with it and you'll be sorry! In our Friday class of four, we had two face-water lovers and two haters. It was actually a relief to me, because instead of freaking out that I'd done something wrong (started her too young? not young enough?) I saw that the water-hating thing is probably a personality quirk.  And, interestingly enough, guess who else flat-out refused to put her face in the water until the age of about 7?  Yours truly. And in high school I was on the swim team. So all is not lost for Katie.  :)

So for the next 6 Fridays, we will decline to dunk. Forget about dumping a bucket of water over her head. (Can you believe that's even a thing?) If Katie can learn the meaning of the word "Kick!" then I feel these lessons will have been well worth it. Right now she just clings to me while I struggle to kick her legs for her. :)

Chlorine, here we come!