Swimming Lessons

Well we are finished with swimming lessons, finished up this past Wednesday.  Not to be a Debbie Downer but they did not go as good as expected.  For 1, my kid still doesn't know how to swim and 2, my kid almost drown last Monday.  It was scray.  Kyla is just to the point now where she is comfortable enough in the water to drown. 

So to make a long story shorter, Kyla had been practicing with her swim instructor on going under the water to get toys off the bottom of the pool.   Her instructor then put her back by the stairs and left her on the stairs while she practiced swimming at the opposite end of the pool with my Niece.  I was watching Kyla, had Emma sitting on my lap, and my Mom sat in the chair next to me (she or my Dad take my Niece to lessons). 

I noticed Kyla had gone under water and was attempting to get back up to the top.  I watched her try to kick off the bottom of the pool two times to get to the top before I realized she was in big trouble.  I saw that each time she tried to kick up she would kick herself diagonally backwards and only got to about 2" from the top of the water each time.  Her eyes were open under water the whole time and were super big, like she was panicked, which panicked me.  I stood up and ran to her with Emma, knowing that I couldn't sit Emma down around the pool (she just started walking just over a week ago).  I yelled her name, yelled "somebody grab her!" which only got me looks like I was crazy from all 5 instructors who were in the water with her and the kids they were instructing.  Thank God my Mom had ran over with me and reached down to pull Kyla up out of the water.  By the time we got to her she had tried to get to the top another 2 times.  I am so thankful she held her breathe the whole time and did not fill her lungs up with water.  It could've been really horrible if she had.  If I didn't have Emma on my lap, I'm sure I would've jumped in the pool, fully clothed to pull her up.  It was terrifying watching her struggle.

Anyway Kyla's instructor then swam back to where we were and asked "is she OK" I kind of loudly said "NO she is not OK" (like, you should know if she is OK or isn't OK, it's kind of your job...) and then was so upset about the whole thing began to cry.  LOL.  I couldn't help myself, that look on her face was so scary!  Even that night I couldn't sleep well because I kept playing it back in my head, the look on her face, etc.

Anyway the instructor never came to talk to me after this...and I was not in the right mind to talk to her either really....I did look for her but she was no longer by the pool, I'm not sure where she went.  I just wanted to go home and like calm down.  Which we did.  The next day I called and left a message for the owner of the place and I got a phone call back late that night.  We talked for about 20 minutes and he assumed to know exactly what had happened, what went wrong, who messed up, yadda yadda yadda.  Which I was surprised by.

To sum it up, her instructor had left toys on the bottom of the pool right where Kyla was left to wait.  Well naturally a 3 year old who had just been practicing going under the water to grab toys is going to continue to do just that, if toys are left out right below her feet..  So she did and it did not work out well for her. 

The owner offered Kyla 2nd session private lessons with this gal to kind of regain her confidence, etc.  I thought about it, but don't think we are going to take them up on it.  We went to our last lesson the following Wednesday and to be honest, the people who were supposed to be watching from the deck were not watching the entire time like they are supposed to, even after this insident and supposed safety meetings, etc. that the owner told me about.  These are just kids who are very young and to be honest probably don't take their job serious enough.  Swimming lessons are for kids who do not know how to swim, so you cannot take your eye off of them at any point and you cannot turn your back on them, which is what happened in Kyla's scare.  Her instructor just had no idea what was going on, only myself and my Mom saw and thank God we did!! 

Soooo I was pretty bummed her first activity was not real successful.  Luckily my Husband used to be an instructor and lifeguard and he can probably teach her better than these kids can and I know she will be safe!  We have two neighbors close who both have pools and have offered for us to use them, so we will probably work on it more at home soon. 

It is important for Kyla to know how to swim because we have a boat and I want her to be safe out on the water if at any point something goes wrong or we are just hanging out on the beach somewhere. 

"Mom I Wish I had Two Hands"

It happened, yesterday...I heard the words I always dreaded hearing.  But you know what...it wasn't too bad, at all.... surprisingly.

When Kyla was younger I would cry just thinking about her one day saying those words to me.  But yesterday, it was such an easy conversation. 

I said something like "yeah...well I'm sure lots of other people could say similar things, like "I wish my skin wasn't black and was white, I wish I had blue eyes and not brown, I wish I had straight hair and not curly"  I also reminded her that God chose to make her special, that he didn't chose me or her Daddy to make special and that he chose her specifically.  I also told her that she isn't the only one he chose to make like her, that there are lots of other people in the world with armies and reminded her of all of the pictures we have seen on the Internet and "my phone" of kids and people that are just like her.  Conversation was over in probably 2 or 3 minutes.  Easy. 

Kyla has become really good friends with our new neighbor girl.  She is actually in the same class as Kyla's cousin and Kyla's cousin had previously shared with her class about Kyla...not sure why, but she did, so this girl has never treated her differently or even asked about her arm, pretty cool.  Kyla now pretty much lives outside, playing with her "friend named Nora." 

Side note:  Kyla's Auntie and Uncle are half Caucasian/half African American, so I find myself using skin color difference and reminding her about her Auntie Amanda and Uncle Peter often, it helps because it's people she LOVES that also have a difference, skin difference.

Then to top it off yesterday night I found Kyla poking at her eyeballs real hard and saying that she "likes doing that."  I yelled at her to stop and told her that she was going to make herself go blind and never be able to see again.  She was shocked.  So I explained to her that some people are born not being able to see.  Holy cow!!  No way.  LOL.

Anyway, Kyla starts swimming lessons tomorrow.  She is taking them at the same place both her Dad and I learned to swim, a small business swimming school that has been around forever...as her Dad is 34 years old and I am 30 :)

I signed her up for semi-private lessons which is 2 students to 1 instructor.  She will go for 3 weeks and is taking the class with her cousin who is quite a bit older than her, but she doesn't know how to swim, so I think they will do well together.  I did explain her limb difference to the gal who runs the place and she was super friendly, really nice and said she had, had a student about 6 years ago with a similar limb difference. 

So other than Preschool this is Kyla's first "activity."  I'm pretty excited.  I just about signed her up for YMCA soccer a couple weeks ago but her Dad talked me out of it, thought she was a little too young still, so we are going to wait a bit.  I kind of now wish I did since she's been out of preschool for about 3 weeks and is driving me nuts!!!  Oh the life of a stay-at-home Mom.  Try to post swimming lesson pics/results soon.

Hope all is well.