So this past week was my 20 month old’s first week of swimming lessons at our local community center.  Let me clarify “swimming lessons” ….basically mom and child get in the pool and do a little kicking of the legs, singing songs in the water, having someone pass your child to you in a swimming motion, and quickly dunking the child under water. 

Our lesson is twice a week for two weeks and each lesson is 30 minutes long.  Our lesson is a group lesson with one instructor and about 10 parents with their children.  Our first lesson was this past Tuesday and as soon as my daughter and I got in the pool I could tell she wasn’t having it.  She did enjoy singing the two songs that we sang in the beginning of the lesson, but after about 5 minutes of being in the pool she was over it.  So instead of spending the next 25 minutes as a Jeff Corwin imposter and wresting a small alligator (uh hum, my child) I decided to let her out of the pool…which she was very happy about.  As soon as her feet hit the side of the pool, she ran to the nearest corner…squatted down and pooped.  Lesson complete and thank goodness for swim diapers!  As we were leaving the center, the instructor tracked me down and encouraged me to come back for lesson two….she must have worried that I might be discouraged, which I assured her we had a great time and would be back.

After our first lesson, I just thought well she just wasn’t into it today…she will do better on Thursday at lesson two.  Lesson two rolls around, we get in the pool and we sing our songs and she is having a blast.  About 15 minutes into the lesson the instructor swims over and wants to pass my daughter to me in the pool.  I figure…why not?  As soon as the instructor has a hold of her, she is not happy.  We do the exercise quickly and then my daughter wants out of the pool.  Once again, I let her out of the pool.  The last thing I want to do is keep her in the pool when she wants out and make her terrified of the water.  Can you guess what happens next?  Yup, you got it…she finds the nearest corner, squats and poops.  Lesson two complete!

The jury is still out on the swim lessons.  It could be the fact that my daughter just needs to poop….can’t say that I blame her, who wants to poop while sitting in water?  Or it could the fact that our swim instructor who wears a wet suit, a swim cap with her red hair sticking out of it, and big bright goggles on her eyes resembles some sort of scary salamander.

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