If she had the proper words to say,

I've posted about it in passing a handful of times, but I've never made a post specifically for swim lessons. It's among those things I'd been "meaning to" for so, so long, but now I'll just pop in a bit of backstory as relevant to the picture post that I'm wanting to make.

The boys began taking swim lessons over a year ago - on May 1, 2007, in fact. As with every new 'first,' I did take along my camera for the event, and I took over 200 pictures that evening during their first lessons. (Hey, I had to document it well, as I needed to have lots of photographic evidence to email to Philip in Iraq, right?) I had tried to sign them up in March, but by the time I arrived at the Lied Center, all the spots were taken. The same thing happened to me in April, even though I went hours earlier on the special "sign-up day." Finally in May, I was at the Center right when the doors opened, and I secured them spots.

I had asked a few questions about level assignment when I was registering them, but the head swim instructor (Leslie) was not there, and the man who answered my questions wasn't really sure of anything specific. I told him the skills that each of the boys had, and he placed them in levels. As it turned out on the day of their first lesson, both boys were incorrectly placed.

I had enrolled Jack in the Preschool level because, well, he *was* in Preschool in May 2007. Not only that, but he'd never had any swim education before. A.J. had a bit over the summer of 2006, as Philip and I had made concerted efforts to teach him certain things, and so he began in Level 2. By the end of the first lesson, however, Jack was blowing his peers out of the water (no, not literally!), and so he was moved up into Level 1.

And they have made slow, steady progress. During the summer, they had swim lessons two nights as week, and on other days, I took them to the pool 2-3x/week as well. We had a LOT of swimming last year! During those heavily-watered months, the boys made better progress in lessons, having more of an opportunity to practice their skills. Once the school year began in August, we decided to keep them in swim lessons all year. We figured that it would be easier to keep their skills up to par (if they lapsed until summer again this year, they'd probably forget quite a bit), and they would have the opportunity to advance a bit more. During those school months, however, the Lied Center drops their lessons from twice a week down to just once - on Saturday mornings for 30 minutes.

So, after nearly 14 months of swim lessons, Jack and A.J. are now in Levels 3 and 4, respectively. We anticipate Jack passing Level 3 at the end of this month, as he passed his "mock test" on the second-to-last lesson last month, but then decided to goof around during the real test. *shakes head* He was pretty disappointed to learn his results, and I think he learned a valuable lesson in that. We're not sure yet whether A.J. will advance to Level 5 after this month, or whether he'll need another round still. Either way, he absolutely adores swimming lessons, and we're happy that he does.

Whereas Jack has currently picked soccer as his sport of choice, A.J. has his eyes set on swimming. We've promised him that once he finishes all six levels offered at the Lied Center, we will then enroll him in the Bellevue Swim Club for competitive swimming. He is so stoked for that day to come!

And it has been so very nice this year to know that the boys are fully independent in the water. Last summer, it was tough on me all the many times I took them swimming: Jack wasn't quite good enough to swim unsupervised by me (even with lifeguards all around), which meant that I couldn't really enjoy seeing A.J. swim on his own. Not only that, but our favorite pool has two special waterslides, and Jack was 1/2" too short to ride them on his own. Of course, the waterslides were his favorite part, and because I had to ride with him each and every time (picture about 20 times each swimming day!), I missed so much of what A.J. was doing - I couldn't see *him* go down the slides, I only caught a handful of his jumps from the diving boards (and it was his first summer to attempt the high-dive, too!), and I couldn't really see his "free play" in the shallower ends. And because Philip was deployed, there really was only me most of the time, and I just don't split well enough in two. *sigh*

Not this year, however. For one thing, Philip and I can both be there. For another, the boys are BOTH now fully independent in the water. By the end of Level 2 in swim lessons, children have mastered the concepts of the basic freestyle. A.J. has spent the last two levels working on different strokes and technique perfection, and Jack has done the same and is now almost two levels past that as well. While being able to swim proficiently allows you access to the diving boards, there is still a height requirement for the waterslides. Thankfully, Jack has grown almost 1-1/2" since last summer, so he now can do that on his own as well!

We first went to the pool this past Tuesday night. Jack was a belly full of butterflies as he approached the height-checking pole, but when it became clear that he was plenty tall enough, you could see his HUGE grin from a hundred feet away, I'll bet! He was so proud to sport the new "adult" band on his wrist that we now all get to wear. :-)

And, being that it was a 'first' occasion, I had my camera in tow. I took tons of pictures, including those of Jack's first solo slides, his first jumps off the high-dive, and also playing in the water. I was so proud of him. And the difference is so evident in A.J.'s skill once he's set free in loose waters (the lessons are very controlled, so it's hard to get a good idea of what your child can *really* do) - he's phenomenal! His strokes are spot-on, and it was so amazing to watch him beeline across the pool!

But for now, I'll shut up about the lessons and the swimming and leave you with several pictures. :-)


Jack at the very end of the 'Curvy Slide.'

( And many more! )

The boys picked out a card last week sometime for Philip, and they had each spent some time signing it. Jack was particularly proud of writing and addressing the card to Philip ("Dad") on the front of the envelope by himself. He also stuck the Hallmark seal on the back of the envelope. ;-)

Inside the card, I had printed out two emails detailing my gift to him. I purchased him two tickets to see Alan Jackson at the Mid-America Center on August 1st. I knew he would be stoked. I waited all week, pouncing on the mailbox and hoping that the tickets would arrive so I could pack them into the card. When they didn't, I printed my confirmation information instead - ah, well.

Alan Jackson is easily among Philip's top five favorite singers (country or otherwise). He's also his dad's favorite singer (which is partly why he is so close to Philip's heart, I'm sure). While I would like to see him and I do enjoy most of his songs... well, I've kinda grown a bit tired of him lately. Still, it's no fun to see a concert by yourself, so I bought two tickets (though not three, because yikes - it was already $126 for just two!). We won't tell him yet (because he'd end up gloating before August, I'm sure), but I think A.J. will be going to see the concert with him. That will be a fun, fun time, I'm sure, and it's a "win" situation: Philip will get to share one of his and Papa George's favorites with his own son, A.J. will get special one-on-one time with his dad, he knows a BUNCH of the songs that could be sung at the concert, and hey - it'll be one more "A.J." at the "A.J." concert! (Alan Jackson is frequently referred to as "A.J." in country music.)

After we all finished up weeding at Runza, Brett left his shift early, and invited us to his apartment pool. I'd been talking about swimming after weeding earlier (I was ROASTING outside in the sun for hours, and a cool pool sounded perfect), but by the time I finished, we'd have only had an hour to swim before the regular pool closed. His apartment pool stayed open until 9pm, though. We dashed home, changed into swimsuits, and hurried over to Brett's apartment. He had said that the pool was always full whenever he saw it, but we must've timed things just right - there were only two other kids in the pool, and they were about the ages of A.J. and Jack. Amazing! We all had a blast playing and swimming for the next two hours, right up until the pool closed. Then we hung out in the apartment for a bit, drying off more fully and snacking on some popcorn and drinks.

We got home late, and the boys went straight to bed. I took a long shower, scrubbing all the sunscreen, sweat and grime off, as well as all the chlorine. Once I got out, I was able to fully see all 19 of my new bug bites. *shakes head* I hope Runza appreciates my work. ;-)

I didn't get to call my dad today. I could have just now, but it was already almost midnight on the East Coast by the time I got out of my shower. That seemed wrong, so I will try to catch him tomorrow on my day off.

I dropped the boys off at VBS this morning. It's their second day, and they always love it. I was stalked on the way out of the parking lot by a nutjob who shouldn't even know my car, much less recognize it from a distance and prepare for such wacko behavior.

I came home and showered, and the drain proceeded to back up a bit towards the end. I'll have to put in a maintenance request about that, but I can't see a good time for them to get out here today, so I'll just use the boys' bathroom for now.

I ate my sample of cereal from yesterday's mail. Mmmmmm. :-)

I've guzzled two bottles of water, and I'm sure I'll need to pee ten times while I'm at work now.

After work, I'm hurrying home, taking the babysitter home, and then we're heading out to a playdate at another sprayground. We'll play there for a while, and then we'll come back home. I'm sure I'll need to take a shower myself as sun + sunscreen = sticky on my skin. Then we'll eat a quick dinner and be off to the last lesson of this session's swim lessons.

And I'm going to bed early tonight. But for now, it's time to get everything prepared for later and then get to work. :-)

I have a new swimsuit. I tried on eight of them, and I finally settled on a tankini. It's not perfect, but I like it well enough. It seems my boobs are not quite big enough to fill in the chest portion, but if I went down a size, the rest of the suit fit, but felt too tight for real comfort.

My stupid chest. If I gave it a name, I wonder if we would get along better? Obviously, "Mounds o' Plenty" must be tossed out of consideration - hee! Any other ideas?

I have a headache every morning when I wake up. I think I'm beginning to figure out that this is caused by dehydration. I don't drink hardly anything in the evening, and what I do isn't enough to get me through the night. I don't even have to go to the toilet first thing out of bed anymore - hello, that's a BIG sign!

I finished a bookmark and the Lady last night. That's two shuttles that are (briefly) free at one time. I want to figure out how to block things now, so I'm hoping to find something useful for that today.

Jack has a birthday party to attend this afternoon from 3-6pm. The guest of honor has chosen a pirate theme for his party, and that makes me all kinds of wistful about my Captain Jack's own pirate party last summer. Ahhhh, the memories. He's supposed to arrive in his "best pirate attire" - well, I think we've got that part covered easily!

I've got a couple loads of laundry that need to be put away. I wash so much more in the summertime, between all the extra loads of towels and bathing suits. It's ridiculous!

Speaking of bathing suits, both of the boys have three pairs of swim trunks each, but I have just one suit. And I forgot to mention it earlier, but while we were swimming on Thursday (we headed out to Papio Bay for a couple of hours before swimming lessons later that same evening - insane, I know), the zipper on my suit broke off. This would be the zipper that's not only there just for decoration. No, it's also the fully-functioning zipper that keeps my boobages from the world's viewing pleasure, and it wasn't functioning at all because it was GONE.

Naturally, this catastrophe happened within five minutes in the water. I was a bit panicked, holding my suit together and trying to climb out of the water near the big slides, and I asked the staff for a safety pin. They had none and no other helpful ideas, but I finally asked for even a paperclip, and they were able to produce two different sizes for me. So for the remainder of our two hours there, I was the gal in the blue suit suit with the "ghetto paperclip zipper" holding me in.

And, of course, now I get to go swimsuit shopping - yippee! Or not.

Yeah, you knew it was coming. Or at least, you knew that IF it was coming, it was going to be titled like that. *grins*

Last Saturday, while Jack was out at the birthday party in Siberia (really, the snow was THAT bad, I swear!), I had decided on doing something neat just for A.J.

Early in the morning, I'd made the decision to not attend a third Kenny Chesney concert in favor of signing up and paying for swim lessons for A.J. Over the course of last summer, Philip and I worked very hard at teaching him the basics of swimming, and he's got it for the most part. Even so, we want him to have a class or two of certified training before we consider him "good to go." I know it will be fun for him, but it also will be very helpful to me this summer if I have one child who can be completely independent of me in the water. Everything was easy last year: two boys, two parents. This year, more of my attention in the water will need to be given to Jack. Even if HE learns to swim beforehand, he doesn't yet meet the height requirements in many of the pools for him to be without me. And while I am with Jack, I need the peace of mind that A.J. is safe in the water - whether it's diving, going down waterslides, or just playing in the deeper areas with friends.

But a wrench was thrown into those plans when we learned that lessons for A.J.'s level were already booked up. In fact, the only openings available were in the preschool classes. And while I do want to put Jack in swim classes as well, I can't afford both at the same time, and it is more important that A.J. be certified first in swimming. So I inquired as to when the next series of classes would start, and we're to check back mid-April to find out the exact sign-up date in late-April for registration for the next series of classes.

So we'll wait until then, I suppose. *sigh*