Swimming

This past Saturday Mariana and I had our 1st swim lesson at the Bed Stuy YMCA. It was a little chaotic because there is only 1 "family" locker room. It was nice and quiet on the sign up tour but packed on swim day, go figure. I'll be dressing us at home from now on.
Everyone is required to wear a swim cap in the pool and I thought this would be an issue for M. I bought the caps a few weeks ago and had been trying to get her to try it on in the bathtub since. She has not been amused. I hoped that once we were by the pool and she saw the other kids with them that she'd get over it. There was so much activity by the pool that the swim cap turned out to be the least of her concern. Kids, parents, instructors, coaches, swim team members- the place was busy and M wanted to stay close, very close. That's one of the fringe benefits of taking her to something new; lots of cheap hugs for Daddy. They sectioned off part of the pool for our group and once we got in the water it was all too much and she started crying. I tried to distract her by telling her much fun she was having. We were led through introductions and few songs and I bounced around trying to pacify her. I started to think about quitting the pool for the day if she didn't enjoy it- after all that was the whole point. Slowly she stopped crying and tolerated some of the spinning and splashing. By the end she had relaxed enough to kick a little and point out the babies swimming next to her. It gave me hope that next week she'll be more into it.