Swimming Lesson Drama

While Oliver and I were in Italy, Oma and Opa took the boys to the Sawkiw's pool nearly every day for swimming lessons. A very brave soul named Ms. Jody was the teacher. Caleb, in the beginning, wouldn't even put his face in the water, but by the end he could swim the width of the pool. Chase, in the beginning, couldn't get through a lesson without screaming, and by the end...he still couldn't. But he developed nice "splashy feet" kicks and even learned to paddle himself to the wall (from about 12 inches away.)

Ms. Jody earned her keep. Bill said that he could always tell when Chasey's lessons started and ended because he could hear the screams from within his home office for a solid half hour. Caleb tried to negotiate his way out of certain tasks, but he was generally much more comfortable in the water.

Chase did do what Ms. Jody asked, he just did it screaming and crying. Of course, he enjoyed himself when he was on solid ground, and seemed to have a blast outside of the pool with his cousins and his Oma and Opa.

Together with Sydney, Mia, and Kendall, the boys went to places like the zoo, the children's museum, and "space camp." I don't know how exactly Alyson accomplished this, but both boys now know "Little Pioneer Children" by heart. They definitely miss everyone in Arizona. Chase still walks around the house singing, "Opa Opa doopity doo" to the tune of the Oompa Loompa song. And we all miss having Oma around and her efforts to put some meat on Caleb!

We owe a lot to Oma, Opa, Alyson and Bill for taking such good care of our boys. Hopefully Oma and Opa are vegging out on a couch somewhere, far from any sippy cups, diapers, or Lego messes.