Nine Months!?!

Thursday now means one thing for Alexa.....swimming lessons.

The morning did not start off too well - as I was making Alexa's lunch, I reminded her that I would be taking her to swim tonight, a mention that resulted in a pre-7am sob-fest. Ugh. Needless to say, she wasn't too excited to see me when I picked her up from Aftercare tonight, especially since I interrupted her mid-painting.

Her lesson was at 6pm tonight, and she fell asleep in the car on the way to swimming. Under any other circumstance, I would have blown it off and let her sleep, but there was no way I was going to let her miss a swimming lesson. The coupling of swim and a freshly awoken Alexa was not a good combination. She began crying hysterically as the kids began to line up and grabbed my pants with a death-grip. A sweet classmate even tried to make her feel better by coming over to Alexa and telling her how "cool" Coach Anthony is, but Alexa wanted no part of it. The manager ended up carrying her into the lesson, as I just shook my head.

Apparently all of the other mothers felt badly for me, and they began to share stories of how their kids needed a few weeks to adjust to lessons. When I told them Alexa had been taking lessons for nine-months, I generated a lot of "OMG - nine months!?!" responses and catapulted to a new level of sympathy with the ladies. Oh well - - I would much rather have sympathy than condescending glances ;)

Thankfully Coach Anthony worked his magic on Alexa, and she stopped crying as soon as she was in the water with him. The lesson ended up going very well, and Coach Anthony was pushing Alexa to try some new skills and gain confidence. Despite the rough start, Alexa was very proud of herself, proclaiming, "I did a great job!" when I met her at the showers. I think we're making process; I'm winning this battle of wills!

Alexa's first swimming lesson....nine (long) months later,
and the lessons are still starting the same way.