The life and times of John Jennings Mershon, as narrated by his parents...

Monday, April 16, 2007

fish gotta swim

and so does jack! saturday was jack's first swim lesson at the montgomery aquatic center in north bethesda.

despite falling asleep en route to our 10:20a lesson, jack was excited for the pool. once he got in, it was as if he were born with gills!

both mommy and daddy were in the pool with jack for his lesson. we did a lot of things, including:

  • trickling water on our heads (done to: "it's raining, it's pouring" song)
  • floating on our backs
  • laying on our bellies and kicking
  • closing our mouths
  • dunking under the water (done to: "ring around the rosie, splashes, splashes, we all fall down!")
  • feeling the tiled water wall
  • holding on to the side
  • sitting on the side and rolling in (done to: "humpty dumpty" rhyme)
jack especially liked it when daddy would come and blow bubbles near him. he did a great job with everything, except closing his mouth. he will get a report card at the end of our 6-week session, and mommy has a feeling that he will get an "n" for needs improvement on that skill! but he was not scared to go under the water and he was screeching and splashing with glee for most of the lesson. the other seven parents and the instructor all commented on how much fun it seemed like jack was having.

i'd love to be able to show pictures of our outing to you, but alas, mommy was chastised for having her camera out. photos are only allowed on the final day, but then you can have at it.

so tune in back here on may 19th! (or thereabouts...)

2 comments:

  1. what's the secret to the underwater dunking? somebody told us to blow on Greta's face before submersion, but we tried that last summer and she didn't like it too much.

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  2. the teacher told us to try doing an exaggerated close of our own mouths so that he would imitate (that didn't work), rubbing his top and bottom lip together with our fingers (that didn't work), kissing him on the mouth (that didn't work), and finally blowing in his face/mouth area (that didn't work) -- though she said the latter was her least favorite.

    we basically just did a fast dunk and jack got a little water in his mouth, but not too much. after a few gos, he was not opening his mouth as much. but they warned to only do it a few times per class, otherwise they can swallow too much pool water.

    jack seemed to be none the worse the wear for this, but he's a daredevil -- which is actually going to be our biggest problem with jack and the pool ...

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