Making A Splash

According to our swim instructor at the girls first swim lesson yesterday the dolphin in the ocean goes "kick, kick, kick - kick, kick, kick - kick, kick, kick". And this apparently goes on all through the sea. The turtle, on the other hand, and perhaps this is an attempt to avoid oil spots, goes "splash, splash, splash - splash, splash, splash - splash, splash, splash". This too taking place all through the sea. Now that we know these facts the girls should be ready to compete in the National Olympic Qualifiers coming up. No? Bummer. Welcome to Mommy and Me Swim Lessons. Although, it's worth noting in this ridiculously PC era in which we live it's now officially called Parent and Me Swim Lessons. Maybe rightfully so as there were three moms, three dads and an aunt in the pool. As we were walking toward the pool Gina wondered allowed how long until it's officially changed to Guardian and Me, to which I informed her it will probably move to Adult of Legal Age With Some Affiliation to Consenting Child Formerly Known as Me Swim Lessons shortly after. But that's another blog. The cheesiness and the silliness aside, though, it was a good first lesson and I really can see the benefits of doing things like singing "Wheels on the Bus" with different words. It's all about making the kids comfortable in the water. From there you can spend the next years building on their ability to move around in the water on their own, but it needs to be built upon a level of comfort. So we practiced getting in to the water, getting out of the water, floating on our backs - basic stuff, and most of what we've already done with the girls on our own, but the element of other kids their age and size (well, not their age cause they were definitely the youngest, but still their size) being in the water with them certainly added a new dynamic which is good for them to get used to. Our cousin Conner was also there so that was nice to have him near by. One dynamic of twins is that each is with a different parent in the pool, but the parents have to make sure they're on the same wave length to keep the consistencies up. The instructor told us when the kids enter the pool the parent needs to have an initiation sequence that brings the kid in - "1,2,3" or "ready, set, go" or something along those lines. Before Gina (who had Genevieve) or I (with Arianna) could begin we had to have a meeting of the minds to decide what we were going to use. I couldn't have Arianna going on "1,2,3" if Gina was going to be using "ready, set, go". Can you imagine how confused the poor child would be? This could really develop into a complex problem and then one day when she's on the space shuttle ready to launch the first manned/womanned mission to Mars and she hears "3,2,1" she may have a melt down screaming "I thought it was 'ready, set, go'! Where's my 'goooooooo?!!!!'" I'm pretty sure that all insanity in the world is brought on by parents over analysing every ridiculous thing. Like the debate over 1,2,3 vs ready, set, go. Our kids are smart enough, are they really going to freeze on the edge of the pool waiting for "go" when we arrive at "3" in the count down? I doubt it. But, that's what we do. Anyway can't wait until this afternoon for round two. I wonder if we'll learn about ducks paddling or fish blowing bubbles? Or maybe we'll learn about manatee's floating lifelessly all through the sea.