swim lessons & Billy & Emily's engagement

our new sister, Emily!

we loved the rock, Billy!

the happy couple

I know it has been a while since I have written, but what a "while" it has been! Busy, busy, busy!! We were in Charleston most of last week for Ellison's baptism & Billy's engagement on Friday night!! YIPEE!! We LOVE his new fiance, Emily, & are so excited for them! More on that later...

Anyhow, I had been thinking about giving Chase swimming lessons for a while to get him ready for the summer. If any of you saw him swim last summer I think you would most definitely agree that Chase is just a fish out of water. He LOVED the pool last summer. I was SO pregnant & SO hot that all I wanted to do was to take him to the pool so that I could sit in the water. All summer people commented how Chase had "no fear of the water" & how he was "such a wonderful swimmer!" I was a proud mama.. SO... this year when I called to sign him up for swimming lessons I humbly explained to the instructor that "my son really is an advanced swimmer for his age. I definitely think that he does not need to be in the beginner class, why don't we just go ahead & move him up to the next level?" The instructor kindly explained to me that the best thing to do was to start him out on a beginner level & on the first day if they needed to move him up then they would. Now fast forward to yesterday, which was his first lesson. So.. we get to the aquatic center & I can already feel some apprehension about the swim lessons in the backseat. "Now Chase, I explain to him.. you are going to go get in the water & swim without mommy, okay?" "Your teacher is going to come & get you & teach you how to swim!"

"Okay mommy."

So.. the teacher comes over to Chase when we get to the pool & takes him over to the stairs where she instructs all of the students to go sit on the stairs in the water.

"mommy, come."

"Go ahead, Chase, go with your teacher"

"No, mommy, come!"

Oh my goodness, this is not good already... I am thinking.

So the teacher plays the distraction game & hands him some toys to play with. As he sits with barely one toe touching the water he beings to throw the toys in the pool.

"No, Chase, please do not throw the toys in the pool, let's play with them right here, his teacher says."

And he throws another toy, and another, and another...

Then it is his turn to go out for the 1 on 1 teaching time. You would have thought the boy had never been in water before. He refuses to get his hair wet & cries as she pries him away.

"I have my OWN mommy, I don't want you!" He screams over & over to her.

"What? I am thinking?? Is this the same child who swam underwater by HIMSELF last summer?? What is this?"

"I have my OWN mommy" I keep hearing from across the pool as the instructor tries to teach him how to kick his legs.

At the end of th lesson, with really only his big toe still wet, the teachers take all of the kids over to the slide to let them slide down one time before they are finished. Chase of course runs over the slide & then climbs straight up to the top (just like last summer). All of a sudden he decides that he does not like this either & screams the whole way down. When he finally gets back over to me & the lesson is over he looks at me & says "mommy, I don't like it.. my pants are wet!"

"Huh???? Who is this kid??" I guess he will stay at the beginner level for now....