Swimming Lessons

I mentioned before, I wanted to get Nolan swimming a little more this summer.  He is deathly afraid of putting his face under water.  I regret not starting lessons for him sooner.  He's very comfortable in the water with a life jacket, but once that's off, nope! I knew I needed someone very patient to teach Nolan.  Someone referred me to a girl in our ward who teaches swimming.  She just graduated high school.  She works at the ARD swim park.  I called to sign Nolan up.  I didn't think Nolan would do well with a group, I wanted private lessons.  I kind of gagged at the price for only 4 days of swim lessons.  I knew it would take Nolan more than 4 days.  I couldn't decide what to do and kept putting it off.  Well, that phone call that I hadn't answered that I talked about in the previous post was this same girl contacting me about Nolan getting swim lessons.  She said she could do it in her own pool.  It would end up being twice as long (so 8 days) for the same price.  I felt much better.  Last week was our first week.  Nolan went from being scared to death, to putting his face in the water, to going all the way under the water for a few seconds before bobbing up.  He is still not comfortable swimming out to her, even with her super close.  He will jump down into the pool with her holding one hand.  But, I must say, he has come a long ways.  I knew it would take time.  His swim teacher is great! Tomorrow, Adam will practice a bit with him before his lessons to get him a little more comfortable.  He just needs to build his confidence and I know he'll love it when he finally gets it!  He just gets so nervous and it's hard watching sometimes.  The first three days, Adam was able to watch Annika while I took Nolan.  But, Friday, Annika needed to come with me.  I hadn't brought her swim suit because she wasn't getting lessons.  She started by splashing her feet in the water.  Then, she stood on the steps, fully clothed.  Soon, she was sitting in the water.  Her diaper was growing.  :) Well, eventually, since Nolan wasn't jumping out to the swim teacher (he was having an off day), Annika did.  Several times.  She loved it! Like I've said before, she has no fear (which might not be a good thing, but it is helpful in this case).  I didn't want to make the same mistake as I did with Nolan though, so when the girl offered to teach Annika this week, for a great price, I said yes! She would mainly just work with her on staying comfortable with the water.  I don't want a repeat of Nolan's fear.  He is very cautious about things that could hurt him, which is a good thing most of the time, but it's going to be tough getting him to swim.  I guess, I'll be posting later this week on how things went his second week.  I am so proud of him for trying! Baby steps...