Swimming

Today we took the boys to the pool.  I have been taking Rhys every Tuesday and Thursday after therapy for the last two months.  Owyn has not been swimming since Rhys' birthday party. 

We arrived and Tracy and I each took a boy to get ready.  I grabbed Rhys since we have our routine down.  Once we were all ready we headed out to the pool.  Rhys marched confidently along but Owyn was not at all sure what was going on.

There is a back story here too.  Yesterday, Saturday, I took Owyn along to Rhys' swim lesson, for the first time.  Tracy had a Dr appointment so it was boys day out.  Owyn loved the pool and desperately, desperately wanted to swim.  He was devastated when we left without him getting the opportunity.  I promised him that we would go to the pool today.  Two year olds do not hold promises for tomorrow in high regard.  He was not impressed.

When we got to the pool Rhys marched right in with his goggles and his weighted rings.  The rings sink to the bottom but stand vertically so that they are easy for small boys to grab.  Owyn was not at all sure that he wanted to be alone in the pool, though he wanted to be in water.  He was glued to me like a Limpet.

Mama and Rhys played and swam.  Rhys got to show off all of the skills he has been developing, and which Mama has not seen in action yet.  I just concentrated on getting Owyn comfortable in the water.  It did not help that the water was cold.  His lips were blue by the time we left.

As Owyn got more at ease I started working with him a little bit more.  I was keeping him close to me, to keep him warm and feeling safe, but I would dunk him under, on the count of three, every couple of minutes.  He was not impressed by this but took it in stride.

Once he was starting to feel pretty good about being there we all moved over to the deeper part of the pool.  Rhys can not touch in this part.  It is "beyond the rope".  To start with I had Owyn in front of me and just walked across the pool.  When I got to the other side I would say, "Ohoh, here comes the wall".  After a couple of times Owyn got in on the game and would warn me when we came to the wall. 

The next step was to give him a choice, when we reached the wall.  I would ask him, "Do you want to go under water or jump off the wall?".  He chose to jump every time.  I showed him how to climb out of the pool on his own.  He got it on the third try.  Once he was up he would look down at me, smile and hold out his hands.  As soon as I grabbed them he would dip one little foot into the water.  I would pull him down and we would go back to the other side.

The longer we played this game the more confident he got.  By the time we were done he was tired enough that he had a hard time pulling himself out, but he was still plugging away at it.  He would actually jump, instead of stepping off.  I would always make sure his head went under when he jumped and he never let it bother him.

Half way through this game Rhys got in on the action too.  He would cling to my back and kick his legs as we crossed.  Kicking is one of his weak points in swim class so we were very pleased that he was doing as well as he was. 

Once we got to the other side he would climb out and jump back in, the same as Owyn.  Since that was going well, no hand holding or anything, I suggested to him that he jump in, turn around and grab the edge.  He missed it the first couple of times but then it clicked for him and he was getting it every time.  Then, sadly, his confidence got the best of him and he started jumping so far out that he was two or three feet from the wall when he came up.  He can not swim that far yet.  My favorite was the trail of bubbles as he headed, slooooowly, to the wall, underwater.  Mama had to rescue him on that one.

We finally pulled the boys out after forty five minutes.  It was a lot of fun and they both learned a lot and did things they had never done before.  Every time I have taken Rhys to the pool he has done something new, but today he did several things and Owyn was off the hook.

We are going to make this part of our Sundays.  The boys loved it and it gave us a good chance to play as a family.