When E told me she had signed e for swim lessons, my first thought was cool!  Erica can learn to swim like the baby on Nirvana’s Nevermind CD cover http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:NirvanaNevermindalbumcover.jpg… except for the dingly dangly.

My next thought was- swimming pool full of infants… what happens if there’s an “accident”… and believe me, they will happen. 

Enter- swim diapers.  Yes, swim diapers.  Who comes up with these ideas?  Aren’t diapers supposed to absorb liquid?  What happens when you immerse one in a swimming pool?  Anyways, they seemed to do the job.  One swim diaper website advertised that “products are proven to significantly reduce the chances of the deadly E. coli bacteria from being released into water by infants and toddlers.”  Lovely. 

The next surprise was when E told me that the swim lessons last 30 min, and occur over the next 9 Saturday AMs.  So much for sleeping in.  🙁 

So how do you teach an infant how to swim, what do you do for an entire 30 min lesson, and can I bring my mask/snorkel?  I had no idea.

E then tells me that I’m going into the pool alone… and that she didn’t want to go in.  Alone?  Me and e, with a bunch of other mom and tots??  sigh…

Saturday morning comes, it’s pouring rain out, and we pack up for the pool.  When we get there, we notice that there’s a Male change room, Female change room, and a Family change room.  Family change room?  I don’t get it.  We haul our stuff there, and yes, the room was packed with kids of all ages plus their parents trying to change, shower, etc.  There are big stalls that the entire family can go in to change and shower.  Still, after years of understanding that “boys go in there; girls go over there” I feel a bit uncomfortable at the setup. 

Luckily we changed e into her swimsuit and swimdiaper beforehand, so she’s set to go.  I had to hunt around for an open locker/stall while dodging kids and strollers and other parents.

Enter the chaos. When we get to the pool area, it was crowded like Superstore on a Sunday afternoon.  The pool was packed with lessons of all sorts.  Chairs were setup all around the pool, 2 or 3 rows deep so fully clothed parents could sit, watch, and take pics of their kids.  And every chair was taken up.  

I asked a lifeguard where to go, and he pointed to the Starfish sign where 7 other babies/parents were gathered.  Our instructor, Teresa, is an asian girl in her 20s.  E says she’s cute.  Hmm, maybe this won’t be so bad after all.  🙂

So, lots of other babies… from 6 mos to about 14 months in age.  All wearing swim diapers and looking a bit bewildered.  I couldn’t blame e for looking all around as there was so much to take in.  We all wade into the shallow area, and have a seat.  The water is nice and warm.  I’m thinking, ok so we now take turns diving to the bottom to retrieve a weighted soother or something like that… Nope.  As Teresa explains, we’ll pretty much do the same thing every week and do lots of repitition cuz babies don’t really remember that much, especially since lessons are once a week.  The first thing we start off is with a song.  Song??  Singing??  What about the front crawl or breast stroke?  😐

First song is “The wheels on the bus go round and round.”  Of course I don’t know all the words, I though it was “wheels on the bus go round and round….  all day long”  In fact it’s “all through the town.”  And of course I don’t know all the other verses… like the “wipers on the bus go swish swish swish” and “the babies on the bus go wah wah wah!”  Yes I felt like going “wah wah wah”… incidently I had a chuckle as I remember Jim Dickson saying, after riding BC Transit on a hot day “the people on the bus stink like sweat….”

Erica seemed really happy/smiley when she saw everyone around her singing and having a good time.  We tried “bubbles” exercise… where we’re trying to get them to blow in the water.  e stuck her mouth in the water and tried to drink it.  Then she stuck her tongue out and tried to taste it.  😐

After that, we went over to the deeper end, and sang “Motorboat, motorboat” “Ring around the Rosie” and “Humpty dumpty.”  We put them on the edge of the pool and got them used to jumping in.  Other exercises had them float on their tummy or float on their backs.  It seemed that each infant took turns crying because they got water in their eyes or too much in their mouths.  I had e too close the water on her front, and i think she took in a good mouthful.  Then I had an upset baby to deal with.  All in all, I think she had a lot of fun.  She did lots of kicking and splashing with her arms. 

I was surprised at how much these babies liked and could adapt to the water.  I suppose it’s natural, as they spent 9 months in a watery environment, and there’s absolutely no fear for them.

On another note, it seems like my Winter conditioning and muscle building program is paying off… it’s only March and I’m ready for the beaches.  😉