Penelope Swim Lessons

Penelope's first swimming lessons were on Tuesday.  Tucker did the entire last swim cycle alone because Penelope wasn't quite ready.  She needed some time to think about it and to watch first.  She is like that in everything.  It isn't that she is super shy but she would be classified as "slow to warm up."  Tucker is the type to jump right in with no hesitation so raising Penelope has been much different than what we were used to.

Anyway, we made a special trip to the store to buy her a knew swimsuit.  It was really fun.  We rarely get to spend time with just the two of us.  She is such a people pleaser it was hard for me to get her to pick a swimsuit.  She kept asking me which one I thought was best.  Or she would say things like, "That one, because I think Tucker would like it."  Honestly she was so excited about the entire thing I think she would have been thrilled with any of them.

By the time Tuesday rolled along she started getting really nervous.  She kept asking me all kinds of questions about swimming lessons.

Penelope: "Mom are we supposed to wear underwear?"
me: "No, like I told you earlier except at the store you don't need to wear underwear with a swimsuit." Penelope: "I think you do."
Me: "no you don't."
Penelope: "Maybe you do.  You don't know everything about swim lessons mom."

Then while we were waiting for it to start she started getting really worried and talking about how the swimming people weren't going to know that she was wearing a swimsuit.  She thought they would  think it was just her normal clothes and not let her go in.

When it was finally time they have the kids line up and call their name so they can go to their teachers.  I wish they would start from the easiest class and go up but they always do it the other way around.  Making the youngest kids stand  there the longest wondering what to do and if they were going to get called.  I can see how most people would not even think twice about it.  But I could see Penelope getting scared and almost start crying when Tucker left.  Of course with our name she was very last.

Look how cute she is waiting.

Penelope lucked out on her class.  They have two teachers and only two kids!  It is like private lessons.

Tucker on the other hand has 7 in his class and only two teachers.  He did great too by the way.  He moved up again so now his class actually does swimming without any help.  It is fun to watch.

Here he is trying to wave at Penelope.

Penelope did mostly everything her teachers said.  I only heard her tell them no one time and that was at the beginning when they were told to dunk their head under.  She put her face in later but she just wasn't ready right at the start.

I could tell she was so scared to jump in.  But she did it anyway and I'm really happy for her.  We talked before  hand.  So she knew it was coming.  We also talked a lot about being brave.  And how that means doing something even though you are scared.

I'm excited to see how much they will grow in just the next few weeks.