Swim lessons part 3 & 4

4 weeks of swim lessons have come and gone, and I for one am thrilled. I am thrilled at the results just as I am thrilled to not have to make the daily trek to the swim complex. Schlepping 2 less-than-thrilled kids to the pool Monday through Thursday put quite a kink in my schedule, and now that it is over I am enjoying my new found "free time", which I am using to catch up on laundry, gardening, etc. {amazing how my definition of free time has changed since having kids} Anyhow, my kids can swim and that is what truly matters. Mother's Day weekend fell between weeks 3 and 4, and Patrick and I found ourselves without kids overnight as we attended a wedding in Newport Beach. The kids stayed with Shesh and PopPop and did a ton of swimming while we were gone. The amazing part was that Liam finally found his comfort level in the pool. My mom got him to start swimming to her in the jacuzzi and he has never looked back. By the time we went swimming with him Sunday afternoon, whe was happily floating along and putting his face in the water, even jumping to us from the steps. We were truly able to enjoy swimming as a family and it finally made tropical vacations seem doable some day. Laney continued to swim back and forth across the jacuzzi for hours on end, even braving the chilly waters of the pool to splash around in the beach area of the pool and play with the dogs. After a full day of swimming she tells us that it looks "froggy" inside, and we have to douse her eyes in saline drops. Week 3 of swim lessons passed with Laney being able to swim the entire length of the swimming pool, stopping to float and catch her breath and then flipping over and paddling some more. Liam finally figured out how to float on his back after being weighed down with a bulky sweatshirt in the water. Week 4 found both kids working on survival skills and learning what it felt like to fall into the water fully clothed. They had to go in in street clothes as well as winter wear and then flip themselves over and float. Both passed with flying colors, and Laney was even wearing swim fins and swimming through underwater hula hoops to pick up toys off the bottom of the pool in the shallow end. All in all, I am really glad that I put the kids through their paces and had them do this program. It was hard-core and so gnarly at times that I began to doubt myself and whether I had made the right choice. I am so glad that we stuck it out though, because the results were worth it. Peace of mind is something you can't put a price on, and these lessons gave me a pretty big dose of it. We will continue to remain hyper vigilant around water with the kids, but just knowing that they aren't totally helpless should the worst happen makes me sleep a little easier at night.