Olivia the Observer

In August, Olivia had her first swimming lessons. Well the lessons aren't lessons in the true sense of the word, it was an introduction to the water for a little girl. (We'll wait and see if she loves the water as much as her dolphin Dad or if she prefers higher and drier land like her mother.)

The 25-minute "Learn to Swim" class was held Monday through Friday for two weeks. We were lucky to grab a slot in the 5:30 p.m. class. It was a lot of hustling to pick up Olivia and get her changed and in the pool with a parent by 5:30 p.m. The first day (when it was raining cats and dogs during the class), I didn't plan it well and Olivia wore her bathing suit home and ate snacks in the car.


Then we had to buy a new bathing suit for her because the ones we had were a little too tight for our growing girl.


For the first week, Olivia's instructor nicknamed her "The Observer." Olivia the Observer didn't clap with the other kids. She didn't sing along. She didn't blow bubbles or dunk her head in the water. She just stared at her teacher and classmates. Basically she observed.

Then on Sunday, Benny and I took her to the pool on the Air Force base where they had a children's water feature. It was basically a large water sprinkler where Olivia could run through it on her own. She spotted it first thing and pointed to it.



She was fearless running through the water.





And after that experience, Olivia loved her swimming lessons. She fully participated in the class and was even happy when Benny dunked her in the water.

She was happy until Thursday, the second to last day of class. Olivia had been up late the night before and was super cranky when I picked her at daycare. She was fine for the first 10 minutes of class, but when it was time to practice jumping into the pool, Olivia didn't jump in the water. She turned and walked to her towel. When I asked her where she was going, she calmly answered "All done" plain as day.

Now Olivia talks a lot, but doesn't say much, so this was a big moment in her verbal development. I smiled and said "no, we aren't all done. We are only halfway done."

Again she said "All done" and walked toward her towel.

Determined to get my money's worth, I grabbed Olivia and put her back in the pool, forcing her to finish the class. She screamed and cried and wasn't happy until the class sang the goodbye song. Then she immediately waved goodbye and gave the teacher a big smile. Olivia the Observer was "all done" observing for today.