SWIMMING

At our Condo community there is a pool and Danny has become a water baby. Well... not so much a baby but more of a junior swimmer. He and I go to the pool about ever other day. Last year at the beginning of the summer I found this vest that has tons of pouches full of something that makes him float. I got it new for $5 in a shop in Provo but didn't use it last year because it was too big on him. I was skeptical at first to try it but he loves it. The first day we went swimming he held on to me for dear life. The next time he wanted to jump in and have me catch him. At the ladder it is 2 1/2 feet deep so he could stand there. I wanted to see if he could swim by himself so I coaxed him out. (I'm taking a Psych class and I would have to say that I used Operant Conditioning) It only took him about 5 seconds swimming by himself before he loved doing it alone. That day he swam from one end of the shallow end to the other. He even jumped in by himself and I didn't catch him. Mostly, he still wants me to catch him.
This is hilarious!!! He thought it would be funny to get up on the ledge and jump in like a frog. He squatted down in a frog-like position, said, "ribbit" and then hopped in. He also likes jumping like a bunny, kangaroo, and like a bird. See video clip of him flapping his arms. (it is kind of hard to tell that on the video though)

Apparently after a 2 days of swimming by himself he decided he wanted to try to go under water. He saw the big kids swim under the water and so he asked me to push him under water. We would do the count down and he would plug his nose and then I would pull him under. He thought this was great. The only problem was that once he went under he would let go of his nose and come up sputtering a little bit. Once he mastered that he wanted to try swimming under water. He had seen the big kids and Daddy swim under water and wanted to try it. We were swimming and I was a few feet away from him when I looked away for a second and looked back and he had his whole face and stomach in the water. "I swim under water mamma." He was so proud of himself. I couldn't believe it!! He liked swimming under water!

When he swims under water he keeps his eyes and nose open. I don't get how he can do that but he just does. He doesn't stay under that long but still. I can't do it. So he is swimming and I ask him if he can see my hand when he goes under. He does and thinks this is great. Next he looks for my feet and for what felt like 5 minutes he was telling me about how he saw my feet. Finally, right before we left he went under for too long and came up sputtering and coughing and I was worried. I warmed him up and carried him home. He was sputtering when he talked and I was really worried. I think it was Amy who told me that her friend's kid inhaled too much water in the bath tub and had to go to the ER. Luckily by the time we got home he stopped coughing.

Me and Danny

Danny jumping off the ledge. This time he was jumping like a bird.

Ah yes, water in the face. Look what we mothers must suffer through for our children.