Swim and Dance

Henry began swim lessons at the local rec center in early March.  Although he’s fairly comfortable in the water, Henry has never been that keen on learning to swim.  We tried private lessons at the end of last summer, but that met with mixed success (see Swim, Run, Cook and Watch TV).  Also, Henry can be quite shy around strangers, so we weren’t sure he would participate without mom or dad by his side.  As it turns out, our doubts were misplaced.  On the morning of the first lesson, Henry readily joined the class and has been happily participating for several weeks.  The first few classes went so well that Bryant quickly registered both kids for the spring session.  Viv is somewhat jealous that her big brother gets to go swimming every Saturday, but she will get her turn in a few weeks.  In the meantime, she continues to shine in her ballet class.  This is a “mommy and me” class (although Bryant has substituted on a few occasions when Elise was working—he was relieved to discover he was not the only dad).  The first half of the class is an introduction to basic ballet steps (plié, chassé, and reitré are a few that we’ve learned); the other half is storytime and dress-up.  Along the way, there’s generous amounts of glitter spray and princess stamps.  Viv has been doing really well and will probably graduate to the “big girl” class next fall.