Swimming Lessons......Part 2

It has been a crazy couple of weeks around here. Which, of course, means I have a lot of catching up to do with my blog here. And...because it would take too much time and effort to keep everything straight....none of these next several posts are in any specific order. I was there....just don't ask me to remember which day it actually happened. :0)


Landon finished up his swimming lessons this last week and passed with flying colors! In fact, every box on his certificate was checked off. {We can't say the same for Mackenzee} Not only that, but the class that he was supposed to be in told him he swam too well for their class and automatically bumped him up to the next higher class level. So, he atually passed two levels of swimming classes instead of just one. Way to go Landon!



He is doing so well with his swimming and is turning into quite the little fish. In fact, he passed the "mommy" swimming test out at Bass Lake last week as well. Last year he struggled and ran out of energy while trying to swim out to the dock and ended up needing Jaysen to help him make it there. So, he did not pass the test last year and was "forced" to wear a life jacket if he wanted to go out in the deep water. This year he didn't need any help at all and so he doesn't have to face the "shame" of wearing a life jacket.

Though it was awesome to watch Landon learn new swimming strokes and how to dive, trying to keep Mackenzee entertained in the hot sun for an hour every day for the last two weeks was definitely interesting. She got in trouble with one of the life guards there for pretending the bench on the side of the concrete was a balance beam. She had to get down and take the walk of shame back to her mother {who had already told her not to walk across the bench but apparently does not have as much authority as Mr. Lifeguard}. She later told me that the lifeguard was mean to her and so she hated him. Good times.......

On a different day, a different Mr. Lifeguard was seen walking around with a Hello Kitty towel wrapped around him. Mackenzee laughed and told me that he was a girl.

And, still another Mr. Lifeguard was commented on. Mackenzee was quite taken with him and let everyone sitting around us know by pointing emphatically towards him and then, speaking very loudly, said, "he has BIG muscles!". After which she struck the muscle man pose with her arms up in the air. She was right....the guy did have big muscles...but I am worried about the fact that my three year old is already checking out lifeguards. I may be in trouble. ;0)







Congrats Landon!

Swimming Lessons.....Part 1

Yes, it's that time of year again.....but at least this year I don't have to get in the water with Mackenzee. Last year was the mommy and me class and this year, poor Mackenzee had to do it all on her own.

We have progressed since last year though! If you recall, there was just a "bit" of desperate clinging on Mackenzee's part last year. This year she got in there and splashed her little heart out. She "swam" with the assistance of her fabulous teacher Miss Ashley. Would she put her head underwater though?

Yeah.....not so much. She finally put her face in the water on the very last day of class because Jaysen surprised us by showing up and she wanted to show off for him.

The fun stopped there though.

The purpose of this class is to get the kids to learn to be safe around the water and to not be afraid of the water. So, apparently this means that on the last day of class each class member goes off the diving board. :0) They are hopefully supposed to show that they aren't scared of the water and to show that they know how to be safe in deep water. One instructor waits for them in the water under the diving board while the other helps the child to either jump off....or in Mackenzee's case....painfully lower her down into the water.

This is Miss Ashley telling Mackenzee how much fun she'll have......I don't think Mackenzee was convinced. She was screaming so loud.....Jaysen and I were trying to stifle our giggles. I realize that sounds bad, but poor Miss Ashley was trying so hard and Mackenzee would not budge.
Even at the end of the diving board....Mackenzee had such a tight grasp around Miss Ashley's neck that her little fingers had to be pried off.


The lifeguards were so good and didn't even get her head IN the water. And she lived....even though I'm pretty sure she thought she wasn't going to make it.

Even with all of this drama Miss Ashley gave Mackenzee the go ahead to move on to the next class when she goes again. I think we may give it a bit of time before we move on to that though.

We are currently on Part 2 of swimming lessons with Landon. He was immediately bumped up to the next class on his first day and has now been forced to swim laps and tread water. :0) I'll keep you posted on his progress....

My little Swimmers

I'm such a slacker mom. Now that summer is halfway over, I'm finally getting my kids into swimming lessons. My original plan was to have them take lessons the second week of summer break. Ha! Yeah...didn't quite make it did I?

Anyway...Last night was our first night of our two week course. I put Landon in a harder class this time. The stuff he did during Spring Break was too easy for him and I really want him to know how to swim. He's almost 9 for heaven's sake!

I asked him when lessons were over how it was..

"Mom..it was so hard! I had to swim all by myself with no help!"

Uh....yeah. That's kind of the point right? :0) He got to jump off the diving board too, which he loved. Unfortunately I wasn't able to watch much of his class to see his wicked awesome swimming skills because....

I had to don my own swimming suit for the mommy and me class I've got Kenzee in. I figured I'd better get a better start on lessons with my second child than I did with my first. You know...that whole "learning from past mistakes" thing. :0) Just not too thrilled to have to put on the swimming suit. Yuck!

She was scared at first and had a death grip on my neck, which was wierd because she was dying to jump in. I let her take it at her own pace and it wasn't long before she nudged off the first step onto the second one....and then stood up in the water. Of course, she was still tightly clinging to my hands, but still! Over the course of the next 40 minutes I was able to convince her to blow bubbles in the water {that took some coaxing}, and then to put her nose and then even her eyes in the water. She was so proud of herself. :0) She is sure she's a swimmer now and was so mad when class was over and we had to get out of the water.

So, if you are wondering...we'll be at the pool every night for the next two weeks....getting our swim "on". :0)

Splish Splash

Landon is taking swimming lessons this week at the YMCA. Sadly, he is 8 and hasn't ever taken "real" lessons before. He took a few at the gym a couple of years ago before Mackenzee was born, but all he got out of that was how to doggy paddle. :0) So, I figured it was about time he learned how to swim for real. {I'm such a slacker mommy}

He has been having so much fun with it. He's learned to float on his back and stomach {he loves the "Dead Man Float"} and he's started to swim forward and on his back as well just using basic strokes. He's doing pretty good too! I know I'm his mom, and so I'm extremely partial, but when they did their little race at the end, though he didn't win, he was the only one that actually SWAM for real. They are in water that's only up to their shoulders, so the kids usually just walk as they move their arms. You can see them bouncing up and down as they tried to "swim" to the finish line. Landon doggy paddled the whole way across the pool. I was pretty proud of him. :0)

And, as I'm trying to watch my son and be a good mommy, my dear daughter is trying to slowly kill me with her toddlerness. I love her to death, but today was definitely one of those "I'd love to trade her in for a new pair of shoes" days. We had places to go after swimming lessons. Important things to do. So, she couldn't get dirty and wet. She didn't care. She ran splashing through all of the little puddles that had been created by the previous swimmers and crawled around on the dirty pavement barking like a dog. At one point, she booked it for the pool. I was waiting for that one and caught her before she reached the steps. I swear she does stuff like this just to watch me get frustrated. Here she is with that little smirk on her face, like, "will you catch me if I make a run for it?" Sadly, she looks so much like me as a little girl in this picture that it's scary. Was I this bad? I tell myself that I wasn't....mom...you tell everyone I was really good ok? Mackenzee gets her "crazy" on because of the Burnham genes, right? It can't be because of me......sigh. :0)

Anyway...Landon's favorite part of lessons is free swim, because then he gets to go down the slide. It would be my favorite part too. :0)

Here's to hoping he learns how to swim even just a little bit out of this. Make this slacker mommy feel better! :0)