It's Fun to Swim at the Y-M-C-A!

Well, we had our first swim classes on Saturday. They actually went really well! I felt certain that Zachary would not want to get in the pool without one of us being there with him, but I was wrong. He followed the instructor to the opposite side of the pool, and even though I was in the pool with Liam (and it’s kind of loud in there), I heard no screams from him or yelling or anything. Josh said he did really well. From what he could tell, there were 5 kids, and he said it looked like they split Zachary & one of the little girls off from the other 3. He said it looked like Zachary & the girl may have been a little more advanced (which is funny to me because he can’t swim on his own, so how advanced could he be?) Maybe it’s just because he is already comfortable jumping in, where the other kids didn’t even seem like they were that far along. Zachary claims he jumped in and nobody caught him and he went underwater all by himself, but neither of us witnessed that, so that remains a big question mark for now. His hair was wet – that much we do know. Liam did pretty well too. He got a little fussy a couple of times – I think his teacher thought she was being too loud. I just think he isn’t really a fan of being held in the water yet (he likes being in a float, but is less excited about being held in the pool). But I think that by summer he will be jumping in like Zachary. We also signed Zachary up for t-ball while we were there. He kept asking if t-ball was after swimming, and we tried explaining to him that t-ball is not until April. But I’m not really sure he understands when April is.

Some other funny stuff from the last few days:
Zachary came home one day last week naming off different kids in his class and telling us that they are his age. I told him that all the kids in his class are his age. This was where he got mad and kept saying that William is not his age (even though William’s birthday is one week after Zachary’s…)

When someone asks Zachary about his swimming class, he will say “I worked with a little girl!” But when you ask him what her name was, he has no clue. He also couldn’t tell us what the teacher’s name was. Did it never occur to him to ask? He was also very excited about the "blue underwear that he got to wear under his bathing suit" - it's basically a CDC-approved swim diaper that they make all kids wear who haven't turned 4 yet. We didn't tell him it was a diaper. Because that's just insulting.

We had a guy come out to measure for carpet & hardwoods on Saturday. Zachary kept referring to him as “the gentleman”. For example, he would say, “What is the gentleman doing?” or “The gentleman is in my way.” It was a very formal afternoon for Zachary I guess.

Zachary kept saying that he was going to be the catcher on the t-ball team and that Gavin, Michelle, and Brayden from his class were going to be on his t-ball team too. We had to explain that we don’t know if Gavin, Michelle, and Brayden were going to sign up for t-ball. I guess it is a foreign concept that he might be involved in an activity with kids other than the ones in his class. Or maybe it’s that he doesn’t realize that there are other kids in our area who don’t go to his school.

Liam is turning into quite a little dancer. He loves clapping & dancing whenever he hears music. But at the other extreme, he’s also a hockey fan in training. Over the weekend Josh & Zachary went out in the backyard a couple of times to play. I stayed inside with Liam because it was too cold for me. Usually I pull up the blinds on the back door so Liam can stand there and watch them. He has started banging on the window with his hands like those crazy hockey fans who sit right on the glass at the games banging on it as the players skate by.

We decided to take a cue from Carrie and we went out for Mexican on Saturday night. We always get Zachary a soft taco and some beans (he LOVES them!), and we decided to let Liam try soft taco and beans too. He loved it too. I don’t think he could have possibly had his mouth open any wider. And he was MAD when it was gone! But the balloons they got on the way out made them happy. It’s amazing how a balloon can make a kid so happy.