Norah worked on kicking across the pool!
Abigail with the kick board!
We started the girls in swim lessons the first summer we lived in Albany, Abigail was 4 and Norah was 2. We took them to The Albany Tennis and Swim Club. Brianna, a former student of Brett, was teaching there and he thought she would be good with the girls AND the class sizes were small. We have NO IDEA how important that last component would be.....
Abigail would not leave the steps in the corner of the pool for the entire two weeks. She cried, negotiated, was defiant and genuinely afraid. Brianna was AMAZING. She worked one-on-one with Abigail everyday! On the last day she would move around in the 3 foot area a little. We immediately did another 2 week session saw a little improvement. (Side note - this was AWFUL for Brett and I. We tried being patient, we tried being tough, we tried igoring her, we tried sitting near her, we tried leaving the area, we tried bribing......it was EXHAUSTING!!!!)
The next two years was a little better, but still Abigail needed one-on-one lessons and there was some form of drama every day! Norah on the other hand has always done what she's asked and since she was so young her tasks have not been very hard =)! She has had a different teacher each year and has done great for each one!
So coming into this year I feeling pretty confident. Abigail is now 7, she swam a lot during our trip to Hawaii and we have a pool in the back yard now! When I called to set up her lessons time I told Brianna that I thought she would be in level 2 and that we should try a group lesson. I'm sure Brianna hung up laughing and thought I was a little crazy! BUT I WAS RIGHT!!!! I made a deal (note to parents...after the previous 3 years I would have tried ANYTHING for this to be successful! You may agree or disagree with this parenting philosophy, but I was desperate!) with the girls that if they did everything their teachers asked without negotiating that I would pay them $ .50 a day and they would only have to take one session!
Both girls did AMAZING!!! Abigail is swimming like a pro - front crawl, elementary back stroke, regular back stroke, breast stroke, diving!!! I can't do half of those! She is a VERY graceful swimmer and for the first time I enjoyed going to swim lessons!!! Norah made a great progress with front crawl and started working on her back float and back stroke. The girls asked to attend a second session and continued their swimming growth!!!! SO EXCITING!!!!
Abigail started school September 7th. The night before we put curlers in her hair, which has become a tradition at our house! She was in her bed for almost 2 hours "trying" to fall asleep...she went from SO excited to SO nervous..... She was very excited to be going to CAP before school, since I have to start my work day earlier this year. It's so great to see her off and on all day at school, although sometimes I don't quite believe this tall, coordinated, smart, grown-up looking girl is actually mine! She had a great first day and loves her teacher!! It's going to be a great year!!!!
My little Norah didn't start school until today. She came in last week for her "interview" with Miss Johnson, which she was pretty nervous about! Today was actually pretty tough on me. I took pictures at school and then dropped her off with sister at CAP and drove off to my other school......yikes! This the first day of any school for my girls that I have not been able to be apart of. Since Norah is my more shy child I was feel much guilt this morning! At lunch I text Miss Johnson and found out that she had done just fine! Daddy took her out for a celebration ice cream cone and she told us she made a new friend.....whose name she couldn't remember! She was very proud of her coloring project and is excited for day 2!!!!
