September 26th First Swim Lesson

I (Gigi) took Ella to her first swim lesson today -  

Its a little swim school near Redwood City - a tented shallow pool.  The air and the water are both kept around 90 degrees - tropical!  No cold foggy weather at this swim school!

The changing room is designed for baby and parent.  Each cubicle has a changing table for baby and separate curtains for the grownups - very decked out for baby mermaids and their mer-people!  Here's a video tour we took to send Ella's Mommy!

We met cool kids!  This is Danniella and her mom Ginger.  Daniella is just one day younger then Ella!  And look at her hair - isn't she clever?  We hung out during class together - the rest of the kids were 12 and 14 months - so we were the new kids in the class.

The half hour went FAST.   Everything is designed to get you wet and moving in the water.  There is lots of singing, lots of moving and lots of taking turns.  Ella loved watching the other kids.  Learn by watching then learn by doing!

Chasing floating toys - loved it.  Pushing off the wall backwards and feeling the water rushed by her ears - loved it.  Floating on her back while I just floated Ella in my arms while I waved my hands singing the songs - Ella loved it.  And it was ok to do the 'elbow, elbow, tummy, knee up, knee up over and over again at the wall to start to learn to climb out of the pool.  

The hard part?  Well, the hard part was the '1, 2, 3' and somebody blows in your face and then zooms you facedown into the water.  Or sits you on the side of the pool and '1,2,3 - blow in the face' and dives you into the pool.  I did giggle when they stood Ella on the mat and did the 1,2,3 blow thing and then had her jump into the water - that one made us both smile!

So this is serious swim class - get wet and get moving!

Ella never cried.  She roared and grumbled when I took her out.  And so we're going again Wednesday.