Four Weeks, Two Swimming Lessons

Joshua's only real sport or activity in which we've enrolled him has been soccer. But with summer approaching, and especially with our upcoming Florida vacation, we needed him to be comfortable being in the water (not swimming on his own, but at least with a floaty), so we enrolled him in a four-week swimming class. It's held down at the Roeland Park Aquatic Center, which has produced a couple US Olympians in swimming over the past four or five Olympics. The lessons are 30 minutes each and consist of some one-on-one time with the teacher/coach carrying/pulling each child around the pool as they learn to kick. Pretty basic stuff, but a good introduction. Week 1 went okay, though he seemed to get cold by the end of it. We showed up for Week 2 and found out it was canceled, apparently due to not having enough staff that day. Week 3 went well, and Joshua didn't complain of being too cold this time. Today was Week 4, our last one. As usual, I took Joshua to the locker room to get him changed into his swim diaper (poop in the pool is apparently frowned upon) and swim trunks.

But when we walked into the pool area, there was no one there. Joshua was sad and asked if the coach was sick again (which is what I told him happened in Week 2). It turns out that the pool is closed due to the thunder outside.  They have to keep it closed for 30 minutes after they hear thunder, and it was thundering while we were there, so it was going to be at least a half hour before we could swim.  So we realized we were going to have to go home.  Here he is in front of the empty pool.

We went back to the locker room to change back in to his clothes, and I was able to cheer him up.

We then drove home, being sure to take one last look at one of his favorite parts of the lessons: looking at the big dome from the outside.  He usually requests to jump on it, as he apparently thinks it looks fun (I have to admit it does).  But after the first day I told him it's not for jumping, so today he said, "We can't jump on that dome.  Joshua might bounce off and get big ouchie.  Joshua might land in back yard."  It's in a neighborhood, but I said, "What back yard?"  He said, "In (a) boy's back yard.  And Joshua might play on his swing set."  So I guess he envisioned a scenario where it was so bouncy that he bounced right over into a neighboring yard, where he kinda got hurt, but where he recovered enough to notice some kid's swing set and to take advantage of the fortuitous landing location to get in some good swinging time.  And why not?  Anyway, next time we do lessons, we will probably choose a place that is a little more skilled with staffing and that doesn't have a fabric roof, which is great for imaginary bouncing, but is bad for inclement weather.