On Tues., July 26th I had my first swim lesson for my Parent & Child Aquatics Levels 1 & 2 class at the Blue Earth area pool. I was so excited when we arrived that the baby pool was open I ran right in before Mom had her shoes off! This was the first time in the past couple of weeks the baby pool wasn't contaminated and I finally got to play in the all the fun sprinklers & waterfalls we've seen from afar. During our first lesson we went over the pool rules, our swim instructor, Annika, read a fun book on water safety and we worked on putting our heads under water, front and back floats, flutter kicking and spider crawling on the side of the pool to the deep end. Mom said I did really good at getting my head wet, I even tried blowing bubbles and the only thing I wasn't sure about was laying back on our back float. We'll keep trying though.
Here's me checking out the water on our second day, Wed., July 27th. On the 27th I did even better in the water and instead of "jumping" in off the side of the pool from a sitting position in the deep end to Mom I actually stood up and "jumped" in to her over & over. Less and less tentative. Mom says and so did a couple of other moms that I'm fearless. By the second day I started making friends with the other kids in the class & it was nice to know some from daycare. I was the youngest in our class but did really well according to our instructor.
Checking out the temperature & wondering why the sprinklers were turned off. We learned they turned them off when class is ready to start and when the pool takes breaks.
I love the water! Swimming pro Hayden!
Big boy walking around the water all by myself. Soon after I dove in head first as I love to lay on my tummy in the water and pretend I'm swimming. By our third day on Thursday, July 28th I completed all our skills like an old pro. I would lay on my front and lay on my back during our floats with my face completely in the water. Again, no fear! I even got better at kicking when we did our glides and made friends with the blond life guard (*of course)! I also got my weekly report at daycare on the 28th in which Mrs. Jean said I'm showing social growth each week. I'm getting better each day at listening to & following directions. On the 28th we introduced a new fine motor / eye-hand coordination skill which was dropping clothes pins in a 2 liter bottle and I did really well and really liked it. Daycare likes to keep me on my toes.
This week at daycare we made flowers out of our hand prints to hang on the wall of our woods/meadow theme. I choose the color blue and I think they turned out pretty good.
By the forth & final class on Fri., July 29th I learned how to get in & out of the water safely both from the ramp, the sides and the stairs. The stairs & railing were by far the most fun. We also did life jacket safety in which I jumped in with it on and laid right back in the water to float. They were a lot of fun. We even got to go to the deep end diving board and jump off into the water with them on. I didn't get scared at all but I think Mom was a little nervous. Here's Mom & I practicing floating on my back in the life jacket.
After our final class on Friday, July 29th we officially "graduated" and got congratulations certificates for both Level 1 & 2. Here's a photo of my certificates:
Now that I'm a professional swimmer I think I'm a pretty cool dude!
On the way home Thursday night I got to stop by Grandma & Grandpa Prestegard's and see my cousin Hannah & Auntie Jenni. What a treat! While we were there Grandpa let me help drive a John Deere 3010 tractor to grade the yard for their family party on Saturday and Grandma & Grandpa put up a new tire swing which Hannah & I got to test out!
Weee! Cousin fun! Hannah was a great older cousin watching out for me and making sure I hung on tight. As you can see below I was all smiles the higher we went.
On Fri., July 29th we met at Grandma & Grandpa Prestegard's for family photos. Uncle Kyle, Auntie Jenni, Cousin Hannah and of course my Mom & Dad were all there. Here are some of our favorites:
The whole gang!
Me & my Ford truck which is just like Dad's!
Dad, me & Mom (*with baby brother!).
Grandma, Hannah, Grandpa & I (*with my truck).
All of us clowning around.
On Sat., July 30th we went back for a noon lunch & a fun filled afternoon at Grandma & Grandpa Prestegard's for their family party. We had an excellent time and I got to try keg Rootbeer for the first time. It was delicious! I got to play lawn games with my extended cousins, well watch them play, swing more and of course explore the yard and equipment.
On Sat., July 30th we went back for a noon lunch & a fun filled afternoon at Grandma & Grandpa Prestegard's for their family party. We had an excellent time and I got to try keg Rootbeer for the first time. It was delicious! I got to play lawn games with my extended cousins, well watch them play, swing more and of course explore the yard and equipment.
I did get to ride the big kids John Deere trike which was a ton of fun. Although I couldn't reach the pedals I did make it work and rode it all over.
We finished the day with dinner at Pizza Hut in Blue Earth with all the family who was staying over and got to eat pizza & bread sticks. What a fun family weekend! Today, Sun., July 31st we had a relaxing day at home and finished getting my new big boy room painted & cleaned out as my furniture should come this week on Friday, Aug. 5th. I can't wait to see the room all put together.
While playing at home I did show Dad how to line up trucks/tractors properly, one of my favorite things to do. Dad thought it was funny when he put one out of alignment but don't worry I fixed it right away and sometimes would even let out a breath of frustration with him too! Dad thought that part was even funnier.
Notice even my PJ's have trucks on them which I love and I even got to pick them out at the store. Thanks everyone for a fun family filled weekend; I had a blast!
