Day 10: Holding hands with someone

Might have to try for Day 10 tomorrow...
Okay, mommas, you want your kids to swim, right? Here's what I think a good instructor should do:

1. Teach kids by showing them. If an instructor is teaching back floats, they should sit the kids out of the pool and show them what a good back float looks like. {Head back, chin up, relax your body, arms out, btw}. They should be very interactive.
2. Be looking at the child when they are with them one-on-one, and there should most definitely be one-on-one time! If an instructor is looking at her buddy on the guard stand while your munchkin is sinking during a back float, she is not paying attention to your child.
3. Make it fun! There's a reason kids love to swim, water is fun! A good instructor teaches by making the basics fun. Think "red light, green light" for kicking while still teaching kids that kicking shouldn't be a "soccer-ball" kick, it should be a "fish kick" or some similar analogy.

A great instructor should notice the details when your child is swimming. If she's teaching a preschooler to back float (apparently my go-to example), she'll probably have the child's head on her shoulder, or what I would do is physically hold their head while teaching them to breath deeply so that their body relaxes and chest rises. She'll notice that arms are stiff or legs are starting to come up. She'll know that head support is crucial when on the back because a scared child does not want water in their face, and it's perfectly possible to back float without getting water on the face. And she'll keep them in the float just long enough that they will either float by themselves (yea!) or learn that they can trust her with their heads and relax.

And here's a final tip for parents: When your baby is taking a bath and you're getting to the end of it, drain it (or if it's like my bathtub, it'll be low enough anyway) enough that you can lie your child on her back, so that her ears are in the water, but not in her face. This has two benefits: the water will completely fill the ears and accustom your baby to water, and she can see your face (which should be excited and encouraging, read this! The third benefit is that she'll be "floating" without ever losing support and still be in the right position for real floating.

If you ever have questions about swimming, please let me know, I'm happy to help. Also, these are simply my suggestions built from 8 years of teaching and going on 24 years of swimming, but they may not work for everyone! (Read: Disclaimer.)

I had a little girl a few years ago who had, the previous summer, achieved swimming the entire length of the pool. Quite an accomplishment, right? It could've been, but when I started teaching her, I quickly realized that she was in no way ready to do the whole pool. In fact, she wasn't even ready to put her face under the water!
The problem was her foundation was shaky. She was afraid to be under the water; she was scared to be on her back. We spent the entire summer in the shallow end of the pool fixing her foundation—how to do a bob, how to go from her back to her belly and back, what arm strokes should look like, etc.—and our summer ended with her triumphantly swimming on her back confidently and able to stay under the water longer than two seconds. She could've gone the 25 meters, but my goal was not distance, it was strength.
The moral of this story is: If you want your children to swim safely and confidently, don't be satisfied with any lifeguard at the local pool who's roped into teaching. Find someone who is good at teaching, because your child is worth it!

Day 9: Having a Meltdown or Crying

Okay this is from a week ago, but she didn't get upset today! It was a great, great day for both of us. Up at 6:40, a nice couple hours playing/cleaning, I read her to sleep for nap #1, she slept for an hour and a half, woke up cheerful and playing in her crib, I was able to shower even though she was awake (shocker!), a trip to Walmart (scored a few photo frames and some photography props on clearance, I don't know why people hate that store so much...), some time in the sun, and another read-to-sleep nap, which then allowed me to barbeque our dinner without any baby worry!
(That is likely the longest sentence I have ever written.)
If only I didn't get more bad news about our house-buying situation when I got home, this day would've been pretty nice. All I can say is, must be nice to live off the government, hope all those people enjoy themselves. :p

Day 6/7/8

Days 6 and 8 were a total flop for me. :( There was just no way to get M to play by herself long enough for Day 6: Crack a Door and Photograph What They're Doing (I tried to set up my tripod and photograph her directly after waking up from a nap but I was caught making too much noise, silly Mom!), and Day 8: Silhouette I just plain gave up on.
Day 7's photograph for Playing in the Bathtub pretty much expresses how I felt:

... but M was quite enjoying herself.
Yesterday while scrolling through Pinterest I saw a pin entitled something along the lines of "10 tips to make your kid a swimmer". It was interesting to me first because I am a swimmer, second because I was a lifeguard and taught swimming lessons for 8 years.
I clicked, and lo, it was also a "mommy blog" and the writer's husband, who also was a lifeguard and taught lessons, had guest written his advice for parents.
I was a lifeguard long before M was around, when this chic would've told you, "No, I don't want kids. Ever," without hesitation. That's the truth, I didn't. (M changed my life, but that's another blog post.) My distaste for kids was well known but I was considered a fabulous actress, because I could get any kid to swim.
Pre-mommyhood, I also had some pretty set opinions on why kids had issues in water, and I am pleased to say that now I am a mom, those opinions were right. Ninety percent of the time, in the kids I've taught, their fear of the water was caused by their parents.
I remember starting many parent-tot classes (parents in the water with their kids, usually age 3 months to 3 years) with this speech: "Welcome to parent-tot. You will be expected to GET WET in this class, so please be prepared. Your whole body, by the time we are done with each class, should be wet." That was just the beginning; my speech covered all the basics and generally a "you don't have to dunk them, but I encourage it" bit.
Typically, the older the child, the worst the fear, and I loved getting babies because (even though parents hated it—maybe I enjoyed making them squirm?) if I had them in my class at 6 months, I knew I could start them in the water right. Putting a child under occurred the first day, not to just get it out of the way but to get the parents familiar with the fact that their child would not drown after a few seconds in the water.
That was always the first mistake I noticed—freaking out if a child fell in inches-deep water face first. A parent's reaction is SO IMPORTANT. Yes, as I know as a mom, it is scary to see your child's face in water. But in the five seconds or so that it takes an adult to grab that child, he/she will not drown! In fact, they'll usually splutter a bit and if they don't look at their parents, they'll keep playing.
The desire to prevent drowning is very strong—I understand that better now—but babies don't drown in five seconds. This is what supervised swimming means—you sit with your child close enough to grab them if they go down but you let them explore!
So my number one piece of advice after my first number one piece of advice (GET IN THE WATER WITH YOUR KIDS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD) for parents: DO NOT LET THEM SEE YOU PANIC. If they fall face first, make your face say "Wow! Wasn't that fun?" while telling them "Blow bubbles next time!"

You, too, can have a baby that loves water!! :) But I make no promises about hats.

Perhaps tomorrow or sometime this week I'll write about what to look for in a good swimming instructor—because there are many, many teenagers teaching swimming lessons who are no good at it. 

Listening to: Nothing, because my iMac is overloaded with huge programs (Adobe!) and is having fits if I run too many apps. I promised it I'll get more ram but I just got a brand new lens and it may be a while...

Dear Pinterest and all the people that make it what it is,
Thank you for inspiring me. I always get great reactions from the hubby when he sees glitter and Mod Podge on the table.
Love, Tafra

Today, it was glitter keys:

This great idea was courtesy of Jessica at www.oceansidedaydreams.com, who was also "pinspired" to decorate her keys. Tutorial here. Although I liked her colors better (especially the teal) I used what I have. What makes it even better for me is now I'll know which look-alike key goes to which lock at the right house. Perfect!
I do recommend being patient with this project and letting each coat dry completely, because I got a little anxious and a few have missing spots of glitter. I also recommend not putting your keys on a metal key ring after doing this unless you don't mind the glitter coming off from getting them on the key ring.

Also exciting is the little tomato growing on one of my plants. Notice the little guy on the right?

I used to catch oodles of grasshoppers (and rolly pollys) as a kid and now I can hardly stand the thought of touching one. <Shiver!> I also suppose that grasshoppers are not good for tomatoes so I guess tomorrow I'll be on the hunt for something to protect them with.
And finally, the best 18 bucks I ever spent was on this little plastic pool:

Because, as you can see, this is my 10-month-old leaning over to blow bubbles on her own without any coaching or encouragement from me. M loves water and it makes me so happy I can't see straight. I tell everyone that I only hope she grows a few inches taller than me because she'll be a better swimmer than me (and I was pretty decent back in the day).
We spent the entire afternoon in our backyard going in and out of the pool, playing with the pug and just enjoying the sun (despite sunburning my back... Guess I'll slap sunscreen on tomorrow.) And although I put gobs of sunscreen on M, it appears she's starting to tan a bit. Hope no one calls child protective services! But when your child is only happy when she's outside, I guess a little tan is inevitable. But really. I slather that kid down with sunscreen!

I wish I had been able to move fast enough to get their faces when M was using Roxy for standing support, and then when she and the pup started to look at the pool. If Roxy could speak, she'd be telling M, "Don't get in there! Don't you know it's wet?" I did try putting Roxy in the pool today and she hopped out faster than you could say "stop!"