It Figures...

I can remember impatiently awaiting the arrival of the summer months when I was a child.   Because summer was for swimming lessons.   While my momma tells the story that, at first, I was terrified to put my face in the water, I remember swimming like a fish.  And loving every minute of it.

I remember being in swimming lessons and desperately wanting to get better to earn the next badge, the next rank.  You remember the ranks, don't you?  Pollywog, tadpole, guppy, dolphin, etc.  Ah, to be a dolphin...

For several years we have attempted swimming lessons with the kids.  More out of concern for their safety around water, but also for fun and exercise.  It has never been fun.  And the only exercise was getting them into swimsuits, into car seats, turning away while hearing their frantic calls while with their instructor, reloading into the car, and getting home, and getting out of wet swimsuits.  Exercise had?  Yes, by me.  Fun had?  None.  Not by anyone.  

The fault is my own.  Being a new, doting mommy, when my babies were widdle puddles of goo, I would cover their widdle faces when I gave them a widdle baff.  So as to avoid water going into their widdle tiny eyes.  As they grew, so did their desire to keep water off of their faces and out of their eyes.

Fast forward to about a year ago.  My kids, splashing in the pool, life jackets on, hanging off the neck of the nearest adult, and F-R-E-A-K-I-N-G out anytime water would get on their faces.  "MOMMA!!! Make that boy stop splashing!  It's getting in my face!!!"  Sigh...

So, this year we decided to try lessons again.  For fun.  For exercise.  For safety.  Because my kids' rank?  Their rank is not dolphin, guppy, tadpole.  Not even pollywog.  Their rank is R-O-C-K.  You know the qualifications:  splashes, makes water rings, promptly sinks to the bottom...  Yeah.  Rocks, I tell ya.  Rocks.

We went to base.  Met the nice little instructor.  (Seriously, I think I'm old enough to be HER mother!)  Signed up for lessons.  Wrote a BIG, FAT check to the base for one month's lessons.  For two kids.

And then some friends went out of town and asked us to condo and cat sit.  The payment?  Keys to their condo's pools.  And so, we went.  I, expecting more whining and fussing and a general dissatisfaction with faces and wetness.  Them, just happy for a new opportunity.

But, alas, I was surprised.  With no prompting, no instruction, no help, no screaming about splashing, something amazing happened.

The first day:

And by day two:

And, on day three, the base cashed my check.
It figures.
You pay for lessons and your kids learn to swim on their own.