Donna's Dolphin

Wow, first post of the New Year.  Who would have thought it would be 19 days into 2013 before we would do something blog-worthy.  Sadly, we've been lazy and boring people.  Plus, the weather has been horrible--the week school started, highs were in the 20's.  The highs!  Horrible.  Of course, we do live in the mountains, so I guess I should not act startled by these low temperatures.  On one Saturday, I did a running race.  Temp at the start-gun was a balmy 15 degrees.  I did NOT wear shorts, although there were some (fools) who did.  I have another race next Saturday, and I think the temps will be a bit warmer, which should translate to a faster time (yes, I'm saying it was too cold for me to run fast, and I'm standing by that story :-)

Today, Bode had a swim lesson.  We've been to the pool at the health club, and the little guy loves it.  However, he's not really swimming when we are in the pool.  He runs around, does the slide, and will even venture into water that is up to his shoulders, but if his feet can't touch, he's history.  We have some friends whose kids are actually swimming in the pool, diving under water, retrieving toys.  Therefore, we decided to enlist the aid of a professional swim organization in an effort to get Bode his swimmer badge.  The instruction is one-on-one, so there's no chance for him to get lost in the crowd.  Thirty minutes with a teacher and Bode solo in the pool.  I didn't think he would do well, as whenever I have tried to teach him to swim, he quickly loses interest and wants nothing of it.  Fortunately, this was not the case.  Here are some action photos.  First up is Bode being carried around the pool with Miss Mel, getting to know each other, and establishing trust.

Next, they did some fun things, like blowing bubbles in the pool.

Then, Miss Mel helped Bode practice putting the side of his head and then his face in the water.  It kinda looks like she is drowning him, but he was having tons of fun.

Next, they did the "starfish" position, or back-float.  I'm amazed Bode did this, because any time I ever tried to get him to do this, he would scream and freak out.  Evidently I'm not the best of swim instructors.  Hopefully my EE instruction is better.

Here is a short movie of Bode floating.  He looks like a log.

He also practiced floating on his tummy with his arms on two kick-boards, and he was even doing a mini-dive into the water, putting his arms above his head and lunging toward the wall.  At the end was a bit of play time in the big canoe.

Bode has a second lesson next Saturday.  I'm tempted to take him up to the pool and see if we can recreate some of what he did this first lesson, but I'm afraid I'll do more harm that good :-)  Ashley and I did a yoga class today.  It was great--and not only because the hot twenty-something in front of me was wearing black-stretch pants that, after numerous cycles through the washing machine, had become somewhat, ah, err, diaphanous.  Downward dog has never been more fun.  Happy MLK weekend to all.