Sunday is officially now named ‘Wet Sock Sunday’. You’ll understand if you’ve ever tried to put slightly damp socks onto your slightly damp feet with a baby under one arm without falling over – It’s a talent, I’ll tell you! But it’s come to be a way of life for us as we just LOVE our swimming lessons and it’s nearly flip-flop season – phew! It’s been a while since my last Water Babies update so today’s post is a bumper swimming update, for the first time not just about Violet, but Pearl has joined the Water Babies fold now too!
So, every Sunday we now do a double-session at Water Babies. We were lucky enough to find lessons that were back-to-back for the girls, staying at our favourite pool, which is a warm hydrotherapy pool just off Dyke Road in Brighton. Our instructor is the lovely Toni as Mel is off on maternity leave. Both girls have taken to Toni really well and enjoy her lessons, she’s patient, kind and encouraging which is just what they need, especially for Pearl as she when she was just starting out. For me, getting used to meticulously packing of FOUR separate swimming bags was a bit tricky to start with (we always used to forget something!) but now we’ve got packing down to a fine art.
VIOLET
Violet is now in Chapter 9! She’s been swimming weekly now for two years and is doing amazingly, I couldn’t be more proud of her. In the last couple of weeks she’s learned to swim for few moments completely unsupported using a woggle. She’s happy splashing in and under the water, turning around under the water and knows to hold onto the rail at the side and ‘monkey’ along or climb out – just to name a few of the skills Water Babies have taught her. For being only just two I think thats amazing, but then I am biased. I feel so reassured she knows basic safety skills in water and will feel so much more confident taking her swimming on holiday knowing she’ll be loving it and not afraid of the water.
She smiles and laughs so much in her lessons – as I’m changing Pearl I don’t always get to watch now which is a shame, but I try and catch at least a few minutes to see how she’s getting on and she’ll always wave and shout ‘MUMMY!……. BABY!’ across the pool when she sees us.
Violet is also starting to understand earning her stickers and badges so much more and is proud of her growing collection! It’ll be something to look back on one day when she has the entire set!
PEARL
Pearl started her Water Babies journey around 10 weeks old, just like Violet did and getting lessons on the same day was such luck! It is exhausting taking both of them (changing a baby after swimming is a full body workout in itself) but great that we get to go and do all our lessons at the same time! I take Pearl in first then Violet’s lesson is straight afterwards.
Pearl has just started her first week of Chapter 3 (which I can’t quite believe!) She is just super chilled and calm in the water, even more so than Violet! She takes swimming in her stride and loves splashing her hands on the surface of the water. She isn’t amazingly keen on going underwater, but does it without a fuss, just giving me a slightly disgruntled look that says ‘Why did you do that Mummy!’ afterwards. I always laugh at her face as she winces before she splashes in from the side but always smiles when she gets into the water, its so sweet.
Pearl has her first underwater photo shoot this Saturday which will be exciting! I love seeing her under the water so can’t wait to capture the memory. We did the shoot with Violet too and it was great fun (her pictures are here)
So, all in all our Water Babies journey continues to go swimmingly (ha!) – looking forward to sharing our underwater photos with you soon! ?
In case you missed the rest of our Water Babies posts, here are the links:
Water Babies Underwater Shoot and photos
Water Babies Chapters 3 & 4 Review
