Fimming

Now. You should probably know this about me: I am unable to take group classes, of any kind. Some psychotic switch flips in my head and I MUST. BEAT. EVERYONE. Even though it's not necessarily a competition (say, in yoga). And the most hilarious part is, I envision myself as the total badass of the group, and in reality, most times? I'm anything but. I've tested this countless times. Hip hop class most recently: in my head: I AM AN ACCOMPLISHED HIP HOP DANCER WITH SERIOUS MOVES. Reality: so very, very uncoordinated and unable to keep up with most of the moves.

You need to know this to understand how I approached swimming lessons, or as Lucia calls them, FIMMING lessons. Poor thing: in Norwegian it's pronounced SVIMMING so she's just incorporated both to make it FIMMING.

Kicking and Me Acting Like She's Won a Gold Medal. Which? Maybe still possible?

After watching her sink like a stone (and I mean, stone) this summer in our friend's (unheated) hot tub, we decided swim lessons were a MUST. We picked a hardcore swim school because we wanted her to learn to swim, not kick the crap out of another kid or squirt water in eyes and stuff. Those things can be learned for free, yo.

So along comes one of those coupon sites with -- get this! -- half off for one month of lessons at the very place we had selected. Freaking yes. PURCHASED. We go to a family swim one Sunday to make sure we like the place and before we went swimming that day, we headed over to the front desk to register her for classes. Naturally, Insane Overachieving Heather takes over and when asked what level I think she's at, "Perhaps the Tadpoles to start?" I guffawed. "Tadpoles. No, I think she's more like an advanced beginner." We finished signing up and then proceeded to the family swim area.

Only problem is, as soon as we walked into the pool area, Lucia burst into tears and proceeded to give me the death grip on the shoulders. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO she screamed! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I DON WANNA GO FIMMING!

Ok then. So maybe the Tadpoles class will be just fine?

Since then, we've taken about 8 lessons with the Tadpoles class. Our first class went really well, and the teacher told us she was doing great and should be able to proceed up to the next level really quickly. Unfortunately, that teacher wasn't our teacher the next week. Or the week after that. When my parents were visiting, the teacher that week was training another teacher, who apparently Lucia hated. As luck would have it, he became the permanent teacher for our timeslot. Being a new teacher, he doesn't possess the confidence that other teachers do, and Lucia has basically no tolerance for that. It's like she's saying there's no way I'm swimming fimming to that guy; he has no idea what's he's doing. Which may be a fair point, kid.

Back before the other teacher took over

Learning how to get out of the water

Learning that it's OK to get your ears wet

Since then, Lucia's "skills" have stagnated, and I want to say even regressed. This is hard for Insane Overachieving Heather to admit. But it's true. She doesn't want to do "balloon cheeks" and she will barely kick with me. When we went up to Tahoe for the wedding I took her swimming fimming and she let go from the side of the pool and again, sank like a stone. THAT, friends, is the stuff nightmares are made of. (Sidenote: we got her a lifejacket for her birthday).

So we needed to take action. We told the front desk peeps that she didn't like her teacher, and wondered if there was a teacher that all the kids loved. The answer was Selma, and she's French. Having known some French women, I know they are no nonsense. PERFECT. We switched timeslots and had our first lesson Saturday. She was firm and much more confident and well, no nonsense than the other teacher. We're here to learn how to swim, not play in the water. Lucia did much better on Saturday and we praised the heck out of her repeatedly all day. I reminded her throughout the day how proud I was of her. I mean, we went all out. Lucia had a makeup lesson today with Selma (just a one-on-one) and apparently Selma is using some creative tricks to get Lucia to go under the water, since I'm pretty sure I ruined 1-2-3 balloon cheeks when trying to get her to do in Tahoe. We're thankfully back on tracking with swimming fimming lessons and hope she continues to make progress. We have just 6 months to go until summer!