One Small Step for Baby, One Giant Leap for Baby Kind

Don't worry. That's just a working title.

I had mentioned previously that we were going to start looking for a place to take Laney for water survival classes. When I first stared looking around, I was really only interested in teaching her water survival. I know some of you watched that video (2 posts down) of the poor baby that they just left floating on his back in his adorable little footy pajamas for more than five minutes. I don't know about you guys, but I was screaming at the monitor by the time his dad finally came and "rescued" him.

I talked to a whole bunch of people here and got the scoop on the best places to go. Well, after careful consideration, we have decided we aren't going to do water survival classes after all. We are going to do SWIM LESSONS! That's right, hopefully a month from now my just barely 1 year old will be SWIMMING!! And when I say swimming, I mean gliding through the water with the greatest of ease. They don't just teach them how to float, they teach them how to kick their legs and move their arms and get from point A to point B and they actually teach them how to climb OUT of the pool. They say that if the baby is comfortable enough in the water and actually enjoys being in the pool (which Laney does) they will teach them how to dive for rings.

Now, I can't imagine watching my itty, bitty baby girl doing this for the first time. I imagine it will give me some sort of stroke. At first I was like, "Why in the world would you ever teach a baby to dive for a ring??" I mean, I don't know about you, but if I see a baby sinking towards the bottom of a pool, my inner voice screams "HELP!! The baby is drowning!! Save her! SAVE HER YOU FOOL!!!!" I mean, air is kind of vital to our survival, isn't it?? BUT THEN.....I saw a video. It was a little boy who is only slightly older than Laney. He dove down, grabbed a big ring, turned himself back over, swam up towards his mama and reached out to hand it to her. He was so proud. I could totally imagine Laney's face as I pulled her up to me, ring in hand. She. would. be. PROUD. She watches her siblings dive for them and claps when they come up victorious. So, if is possible to teach her how to do that safely, why wouldn't SHE love doing it too??

Alright, so, the more comfortable a baby is in the water when they start, the faster they will get through each lesson and the more they would be able to get out of the lessons as a whole. (Well, DUH! That's kind of a given.) So, we decided to try and get Laney a little more comfortable going UNDER the water (And get myself a little more comfortable watching her BE under the water). So, we sat our older children along the side of the pool and then, one at a time, we had them fall off and into the water. They would lean forward, fall in, their heads would go under and then we would scoop them out. Laney sat and watched for a while. Then, it was her turn......

We couldn't believe SHE ACTUALLY DID IT!! And then she did it again....and again...and again.....She got to the point where she would fall in, come up, spit the water off her lips and then squeal with glee!! (heehee...I just used the word "glee")

It sure would be adorable if she actually took to this whole swimming thing (especially because that way we wouldn't feel like it was a big waste of money...of course it wouldn't be a waste of money even if the only thing she gets from it is being able to float on her back and keep her face out of the water. I mean, it's worth the money to even TRY if it means it could save her life, right??)

I will keep you all posted!

Oh, and Kyle told me I had to post this video too because he "looks so cool" in it.

They have been trying to learn how to do flips. I think I have a heart attack every time they try this because I just know that one of these times one of them is going to crack their head open.

No wonder I have so many grey hairs!!