Swimming

Emily had her last swimming lesson this morning. Greg and Emily have been going to Parent/Child swimming lessons for the past 2 months every Saturday morning. Emily takes half the class to get really into the water and then she loves enjoys the last 15 minutes and is ready to fall asleep for a good nap by the time she is dry and dressed. She does enjoy the water, but takes some time to get into the splashing each week. These pictures were of the various things the class did during their 30 minutes in the water. Emily knows how to jump in the water and can "swim" underwater for a foot or 2. They have toys that float to encourage the kids to reach like they do when they are swimming. Emily usually has a ball. If she has any of the other toys she can hold them too much and doesn't reach out for them. The ball isn't quite as easy to hold the whole time.

We are starting to see a newer side of Emily both at swimming and at daycare. It is the reserved side that takes some time to warm up around others and isn't fully herself in a crowd of people. At swimming she takes some time and her daycare teachers mentioned it to me this past week. If Emily takes a morning nap and doesn't go down in the early afternoon when most of the rest of her class does, she is one of the few, usually the only, baby still up. So she has the carpet to herself. That is when the teachers see the most crawling, trying new things, and the most chatting out of Emily. When everybody else is up, Emily just watches them, when they are asleep she is more active. Emily also speaks her mind when she wants or doesn't want something. Her daycare teachers were happy that she started crying and getting fussy when all of the other kids went to the table for lunch, but she was carried off for a diaper change first. I guess it is good developmentally that she sees herself as part of the group. She also doesn't like to have teachers that she doesn't know. Twice in the last week or 2 a floating teacher has been in her room when Greg has dropped her off. When the floater sits down to feed Emily her breakfast, she has thrown a big fit until one of her regular teachers comes over and feeds her instead. Emily has always been so easygoing and generally she still is, but every now and then, she really tells you what she wants!