Swimming lessons! :)

Rena and I had our first mommy-and-me swim class today at the Rady JCC, the Jewish community center here in Winnipeg. She was begging for her swimming lessons ever since I told her she was registered for the class (after having offered her a choice between that and gymnastics). We had a wonderful day! Yes, I mean "day"- the class itself is just a half hour long but Rena did not want to stop swimming! (The lifeguards didn't mind us staying beyond class time.)

The kids' pool has two little water slides (one of which Rena promptly went down multiple times while waiting for the class to start), just regular playground equipment but the bottoms are inside the pool and contain water. It's connected to the adult pool via a passageway under a bridge. There is also a ledge shaped like a horseshoe for jumping into the water.

Skills we learned in the class included blowing bubbles in the water, floating (front and back), kicking legs in the water (also front and back), and jumping into the water (a skill with which Rena was already well acquainted). The teacher played some games to help put those who were not yet comfortable in the water at ease. One game, Simon Says, encouraged the kids to put different body parts in the water, and others helped get kids to jump into the water. Rena loved Simon Says but was not at all interested in the jumping games- she just jumped into my arms. :) There was just one daddy doing the class (mommy-and-me, I've noticed, is a limiting terminology; a better term I've seen used is parent/child but that's also limiting because there are lso grandmas who participate) with his child. Rena suddenly went over to him in the water and gave him a kiss on his shoulder. At the end of class we were told we could play with pool toys in a large bin. Rena, being the sweety-pie that she is, took out almost all the balls and toy boats and tossed them into the water for all the kids; she had me take care of those she couldn't reach and even had me empty the bin entirely by removing the few random toys that we saw all the way at the bottom of the bin.

Somehow we spent a couple hours swimming after that with just a two-second snack break. We observed a class for mommies with babies that might have been w after aerobics or something. The mommies would hold the babies for part of the class, and other times they had the babies in little floats. It was sooo cute! :) At one point I pretended to be a shark while Rena played  a fish, and the "shark" went chasing and chomping after the "fish." She said it tickled. :)

I hadn't brought a lunch for us because I hadn't expected to stay so late and we were both really hungry, so I took Rena to the little kosher restaurant there, Shmoozers, for lunch as a special treat. Why not, to celebrate her first swimming lessons? I said clearly that it was a special treat and that from now on we would bring lunch from home (Grammy and Grampy's house). We got a huge taco salad, and a salmon and red pepper quiche that came with a piece of garlic toast and a side salad. All the food was delicious! :) Also we ran into Rabbi and Rebbetzin Ellis while we were there. Thank you, Rabbi Ellis, for again being so helpful with discussing my questions and concerns, and thank you, Rebbetzin Ellis, for the update on you-know-what.

We can't wait for next Thursday! :)