Last Swim Lesson

Our 6-weeks of swim lessons at Baptist East Milestone Wellness Center is over. Our last lesson was Sunday evening, Memorial Day weekend. There were only 4 kids in the class this week - the 4 of us from Highview (see the photo above). I don't know where the rest of the class was, but it was fun having just us with the instructor. The lesson started out the same as it had been for the last few weeks: practicing kicking, holding & reaching for the bar on the side of the pool, dunking underwater, and reaching for toys above & under the water. This week they put all the skills together and had our final "test". I believe the test was more for the mommies than it was for the babies. The instructor had us all get out of the pool and walk to the edge. She stayed in the water and one at a time we dropped our children into the pool - as if they had fallen in. It took every ounce of strength I had not to reach in a pull Nathan to the surface as soon as he dropped in. We stood there and watched as our child came to the surface, turned and reached for the bar on the side of the pool (all of the elements they had learned). It really was amazing to see that they could do it, but still VERY nerve-wracking.

We are hoping to sign Nathan up for the next session in the fall. He graduated from the "Polliwogs" program (he has the certificate to prove it), and will be a Jelllyfish. The instructor is considering adding an advanced Polliwog class for those kids who are beyond the intro class, but not yet ready for the Jellyfish level. If they do that, I will sign Nathan up for that class. Ashley Lawrence was interested in doing the same for Ellie.

I highly recommend swim lessons for every young child. I didn't want Nathan to be afraid of the water and I believe this experience has made him better aquainted with the water. Do I think he could "save himself" if he fell in unsupervised? Absolutely not, but he is not afraid to get his head wet. I have heard of other swim programs where the kids play, splash and sing silly songs the whole time and never practice any skills or even go underwater. I really liked the program at Baptist East Milestone Wellness Center and I would recommend it to anyone.

Food Frustration

I am in quite a pickle about Nathan's eating habits. I have always said I was going to try not to make different food for Nathan than what Jeff and I were eating. Most of the time, he gets a smaller portion of whatever we are eating, but most recently he has decided he doesn't want to eat anyting we give him. I don't want to give in, but at his 18-month appointment the doctor was somewhat concerned about his weight (or lack thereof: 21 pounds = 3 rd percentile) and encouraged us to give him more calories. They gave us some Pediasure samples to try. We tried to give him the Banana Creme flavor in his sippy cup, but he won't drink it. Then we were given the suggestion to freeze it and blend it into ice cream, but he still wouldn't eat it. The other flavor they gave us was Vanilla, so we will try that tomorrow.
The short list of foods he will eat:
cereal bars
bananas
raisins
applesauce
cheese
crackers (any)
bread
PB sandwich (sometimes)
ice cream
yogurt
Last evening he refused chicken nuggets and he hadn't eaten anything for lunch so I broke down and gave him a cereal bar, baby oatmeal, baby food squash (stage 3) and baby food chicken (stage 2) - which he inhaled. I know he is hungry, but he refuses to eat the solid food we give him. I am getting frustrated, but you can't force an 18-month old to eat.
He's happy and active, but just won't eat.
Any Suggestions?!?!?!?!?

A good problem to have

As a result of the American Airlines delays at the beginning of April that stranded Jeff and Nathan in Texas for 4 days, we now have a $700 credit for airline tickets (expires April 2009). Jeff and I have been thinking of where to go on vacation. We don't travel all that often and we fly even less frequently.
As we were contemplating this situation, I got a call from The March of Dimes. Because I participated in the March of Dimes Walk for Babies last month and collected money for the organization I was entered into a drawing for prizes. Well ... my name was drawn as a winner of 2 tickets on Continental Airlines. Now we have until December to use another pair of airline tickets. I was thinking all of this as I was talking to the man from The March of Dimes, so I probably didn't act as excited as he expected me to.
I know most people would love to have this "problem" on their hands, but right now, I don't know what to do with all these airline tickets.

Nathan's new outdoor toys

I have been looking at consignment for some outdoor play toys for Nathan with little luck. Everyone I talk to either doesn't have anything or if they do, they can't keep them in stock. We finally broke down and bought one on sale at Toys R Us. Nathan loves it. He can play for hours on the slide. We had to put a small stool inside for him to step up onto the platform and he likes to sit on the stool and use the platform for a table. He has been eating his afternoon snacks at his new "table". He also has a cool water table with a tower and water wheel. He loves to scoop up the water with the boats and dump it out onto the grass.

Both toys are easy to disassemble and reassemble in the basement. We converted to water table into a car table where he can roll his cars down the shoots.

Swim Lesson # 2

It has been almost a week since our second swim lesson, but I have not been able to get a new post done in quite some time. My work schedule has been crazy. I am working a lot of night shifts because my co-worker's wife is in the hospital. I pray she gets better soon, for her sake, her husband's sake, and for mine (so I don't have to work these crazy hours anymore).


Back to the swim lesson...


Nathan did SOOOO much better this week. I can't say he totally loved the experience, but he did no whail in my ear and he seemed to enjoy parts of it. We got to the pool a little earlier and eased into the water, that helped a lot. I also brought a small tub toy that squirts water, and he liked holding onto that throughout the lesson - look closely to see the green frog in the picture.


Thanks to Lindsay Barnes (who was watching Troy and Elijah from the sidelines), I have some pictures to add to this blogspot.

Look at the Highview babies:

Elijah Barnes (with Troy), Ellie Lawrence (with Ashley), Nathan Wisener (with Mandi), and Lily Stacy (with Jane).