Swimming Lessons

I am not much of a water bug so I haven't had the desire to sign Braylon up for swimming lessons. This past Spring a mom from MOTTTs had postcards on our table advertising her business called Shepard's Swimming School. Click on the name to go to the website. Since I knew her & heard good things about her swim school I decided to sign Braylon up. I signed up as late as possible so Jaydon would be as old as possible so that was the wks. of July 12th & 19th. He went Mon., Wed., & Thurs. for 2 wks. I signed up as late in the day as possible so Ben could come along & help me juggle our 2 boys. We were in the 4:30-5pm session. Here's a re-cap of his lessons:

Day 1
When his teacher asked him to hop into the water, this was his response: yup, tears!

Braylon doesn't have much experience in the water...a couple times each summer is really all he gets so this was a new & scary experience for him!

I'm sitting by the pool...that's where he wanted me! See him smiling? He just got done saying "this is fun!" Could've fooled me since he was crying!

Day 2: Didn't take any pictures...didn't want to be known as "that Mom w/the camera!" Besides they did the same techniques so I really didn't need doubles! :) Still tears!

Day 3: I had to take a picture...Braylon is all excited about jumping off the edge of the pool...what? Doesn't he remember he cried 2 days ago when he had to do it? See how he needs to hold his teacher's hand in order to jump in. He does NOT want his head to go under water! The other 2 pictures are of him just hanging out on the wall waiting. Still had some tears.

Day 4: This is what Jaydon did every swim lesson. Normally Ben sits by Jaydon & I am w/Braylon. This day I told Ben he could have his turn w/Braylon. Had some tears, not as many as before.

Day 5: Ben's BD - Looks like he loves these lessons...but we still get tears...not as many as before.

Day 6: Last Day! Absolutely no tears! But then our lesson got cut off half way thru becuz of a storm brewing. So I'm wondering if we would've continued the lessons if the tears would've eventually came. His teacher was absolutely amazing with him!

But I was SOOO proud of him every day! Even tho he would cry @ least he would listen to his teacher.

3 weeks later we see that these swimming lessons paid off! Braylon & Ben went swimming in our neighbor's pool while I fed Jaydon. We totally could see confidence in Braylon! He would actually be in the water w/o having to hold onto Ben! YEAH!

AND...he would jump off the ladder into Ben's arms...w/o having to hold onto him. During his lessons he always had to hold onto his teacher's hand to jump into the water. Here's a 2 second video to show his progress:

After I was done feeding Jaydon, we had him dip his feet in the pool. He didn't seem to mind it. Here's Braylon kissing Jaydon!