Swim Lessons

This morning was very windy.... it was very dusty... it was also the morning of Madeline's first swim lesson.  I decided to give swim lessons a try - even though Madeline has never been what you would call a water baby. She's gotten better as she has gotten older and a lot of the moms I know here are starting their kids in swimming lessons around age 3 or 4, so we thought we'd give it a go.

It wasn't the best day for it with the shamal happening and with the cold water in the pool and with the fact that she has never met the nice young lady who would be her teacher before who, it seemed to me, didn't have that much experience teaching uncooperative litte kids. She was sweet, and she tried to be nice to Madeline and comfort her as Madeline clinged to her tightly and bellowed "no, noooo, noooooo" over and over. When we started I stayed in the pool with Abigail to offer some kind of comfort to Madeline, knowing full well my presense usually doesn't help with things like this. About 5 minutes in I left the pool and took Abby over to the baby pool.  I still couldn't help watching her and shouting ideas of help across the pool... "maybe she'd be more comfortable without her swim goggles on?" "Madeline, she's really nice! She won't let you go under if you don't want to."  etc. etc. I don't know, maybe I sabotaged the entire experience (now that I think about it). I just wanted her to be relaxed and cooperative and have fun like she is at home or like she is in the baby pool.  It was the complete opposite.

So after not an entire half hour, I paid the sixty five riyals, thanked the teacher, and we mutually agreed that Madeline probably needs a little more experience of being in the big pool with mom and dad, and maybe we could try lessons next year.  On the way out from the pool it was so windy we were blown over - but I caught us before we did a complete wipe out.  And the security guys and the junior high kids got a nice view as my skirt was blown up while buckling the girls into their carseats.

This experience reminded me of when I first started swimming by myself (sans the windy skirt incident and sandstorm) and remembering it gives me hope. As a child, my family would go many weekends of the summer for a visit to my Grandma Vivi and Grandpa John's swimming pool at the condominium where they live. It was a good experience, one I always looked forward to.  We'd stop at Grandma's to get a towel and our special "yes I am not just some crazy person off the street who doesn't know a member of this community" tags that we had to pin to a visible area of our suits. Then, we'd walk down the street toward to small fountain pond with ducks and take the back route toward to clubhouse - a little rock layered creek/stream that was small enough we could leap back and forth across it and climb on the rocks as we walked.  This little stream led to the giant pond with the giant fountain, which, I bet if I were to see it now would probably be pretty puny.  The giant fountain, which always had ducks near it to feed and chase, was right next to the clubhouse. I was once attacked by a duck mom defending her ducklings that I happened to be chasing... it was a wicked circle of defensive mothers because, as I was being jumped on by the momma duck, my momma was grabbing the momma duck off of me. The troubles little kids cause... eeesh.  I certainly learned a lesson that day: Don't chase baby ducklings - at least when their mom is present - or you will get nice serving of duck profanity and possibly get your face snapped off.

The clubhouse is a big building that people who live in this particular condo complex can use for family parties - we used to always have a big Christmas party there every year - and downstairs are the bathrooms, a weightroom, and a jacuzzi.  It was always a quiet place that smelled of chlorine. The basement door has a ramp outside of it that leads to the pool area.  An L-shaped pool that began at 3 ft and ended at 10ft. 

The day I first swam in the deep-end by myself was all me.  I never had swim lessons. My brothers were fish, loved diving, and often played a game where they would drop a coin in the water and see who could dive down and retrieve it.  I wanted to play. So one day I just did it... I ran and did a cherry bomb right into the deep end. Then I doggy paddled my way to the edge and the cheering began.  I was much older than Mads. I stayed in the deep end for the rest of the summer.

So, nice memory and I'm not worried. I know Madeline will learned to swim one day... hopefully sooner than later.  At least we gave it a try. We'll try again next year and maybe spend some more time at the pool in the meantime. I think right now Madeline is more of a dancer/artist/speech writing consultant/doctor than a swimmer.

Abigail on the other hand... reminded me of an eel, slithering and sliding and diving all over the baby pool. She'll be doing a forward flying pike with a reverse twist into the deep end with a ripped entry into the water by the age of 3.