Baptism...

... well, not quite.

Rosemary went under the water at swimming today. And, as with so much of the swimming so far, this was a much bigger step for me than for her.

The instructor (honestly can't remember her name, though it might be Sue) said 'Right. We haven't done this for a few weeks, so we're going to do some submersion.' And at that point her voice was coming across in a foreign language. All I could hear was 'Blah, blah, blah'. This was one of things I'd been most concerned about, with taking Rosemary swimming. One of the things that contributed to my not trying it until she was 18 months.

Surely she can't go underwater? She'll drown. How can it be even remotely possible for her to go underwater and not drown?

I stayed by the edge of the pool clinging to Rosemary far too tightly. The instructor came over and I told her that we'd never done it before. She walked me through it very clearly and suggested starting off with just letting her go down to over her mouth, first, to see how she found it. We tried it. She loved it. We tried it again. She still loved it. We tried it with the whole head. She still loved it. Though she was a little bit surprised. Wow!

Other things she enjoyed at swimming today: climbing down the steps (in the deep end); climbing out of the pool; jumping into the pool (with me catching her) about 10 times; doing The Hokey Cokey. Things she wasn't too keen on: pushing a duck through the water (though she did manage it after a while, mostly she wanted to chew the duck); sliding along the top step and under the railings (she walked and then got down and bum-shuffled under when she go to a railing, then got up and walked again).

And in the prior to swimming she enjoyed a trip to the bank and a visit to the shoe shop to, in a departure from the usual, buy Mummy some new shoes. (I thought it was my first new shoes in about 3 years, but Tia Eva pointed out that I got some cheap sandals last summer.) And after her nap in the afternoon, we went to the library and got 10 new books out and she did lots of running around and gave a couple of random children a hug.

Mummy Rosemary Tuesdays are fun! (Hopefully not just for me.)

Swimming

Rosemary went to Swim Tots for the first time today.

She was very impatient to get in the pool and grumbled quite a bit at having to wait on the side for the previous class to finish.

The things she enjoyed most were going up and down the steps at the entrance to the pool, jumping across the pool like a kangaroo, jumping into the pool when Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall (with my help - not quite ready for her to jump in on her own!) and splashing with her feet and hands.

She did not enjoy having to stop what she was enjoying (e.g. going up and down the steps) to do something else, swimming on her back, having the shampoo and conditioner rinsed out of her hair in the shower afterwards, though she was less complaining about it than she is in the bath.

She wanted to go back in and do more swimming, which is probably a good sign.

She fell asleep not very long after we left, while walking round Tescos, though only slept for a short while. I remember always being very tired after swimming when I was little, too.

I was a little scared when she tried to wriggle out of my arms in the middle of the pool a couple of times, but other than that it was fine. I don't know when I'll feel confident enough to let go of her where she can't stand up, though. Hopefully the classes will help me get to that point, as well as helping her!!