Last summer, Marc was invited to a birthday pool party by one of his friends. He's always been afraid of deep water and getting his face wet, even in the bath. She, of course, is growing up with a pool in her backyard, so she already knows how to swim and jumps in without fear and swims in the deep end. It was so sad to watch him sitting on the steps by himself that I determined that he would learn to at least be comfortable in the water by next summer.

Alex's fear of the water is even more pronounced. From his first bath until probably only a year or so ago, each bath (and especially hair washing) involved screaming. I often had to bathe him standing up because he was too afraid to sit down in the water. He's still afraid of pools and whimpers while I wash his hair.

So, they both got swim lessons for Christmas and they started last week. Marc's first class was last Monday and Alex's was on Saturday. I am so proud of them! After his first class, he couldn't wait to go back for his Wednesday class and was so disappointed to miss his Friday class to pick me up at the airport. He has another class today, but in the bath last night, he was showing me how he can hold his breath with his head underwater. And he seems to enjoy it! We even rinsed his hair that way.

Alex's class was a Mommy and Me class. He screamed for the first 5 minutes or so and clung to my neck for another 10 minutes, but after that he did very well. He still wouldn't put his face in the water to blow bubbles like the instructor suggested (though I didn't expect that big of a jump right away). But we got to holding him out in front of me and him kicking. The only contact with me was holding onto my wrists.

This summer is looking up for them!