Swimming Test

Shane had his fourth and final swim class. It involved some testing. His teacher has praised his effort levels continuously. He's noted that Shane is not "detail oriented," and there's some stuff he does right and some stuff he does wrong. But he doesn't quit and has energy to spare. 

I'd say that's an accurate assessment. Shane's don't well and I'd like to sign him up for another round, but with the beach and graduation coming up it may not happen. 

This is the raw footage of some of the swim tests. I didn't bother to edit it, so only watch if you're bored or happy to fast forward.

The hope is one day Shane will be a good enough swimmer, Carrie will be able to watch him without a panic attack.

Swimming Lessons

It's past our normal time to start swim lessons! We're not doing Pokemon night, and I'm not doing board game night, so.....we started swim lessons.

Shane loves swimming.

The instructor said that he had, "Great energy" (ha) and that he "didn't give up."

And you know what? I agree. Shane did go both of those things. He was borderline overly energetic, but this instructor seemed happy with that. I was worried I put Shane in too high of a level class with having to swim the length of the pool repeatedly, but he noticeably improved over the course of the lesson. I wasn't expecting to see that so quickly!

Not that Shane is suddenly a top marks swimmer now. It's all about increments. He has more trouble on his back than his front, but now I'm hoping to see improvement after every lesson!

I'm wondering if I'm eventually going to have to sign up for the one sports activity neither Carrie or I want to sign Shane up for: A swim team.

Final Pool Day....with Sam and Toby! And Iggy!

My cell buzzed on the drive home from Grandma's. Sam asked if Shane wanted to play.

Of course, Shane did! We met Sam, Toby, and Kate at Fry's Spring Beach Club at 3:30 PM.

Shane and I have never been. You have to be members and it's too expensive for the amount of driving we seem to do over the summer. It was a nice looking place. There were three separate pools: Baby, wading, and adult (max 7').

Shane and Sam were excited, because Iggy was there!

The boys ran down to the deep end immediately.

I set up shop in some shade and watched them ham it up.

The boys were doing cannonballs and silly walk and jumps with abandon.

They were all super hyper, super noisy, and super entertained. Hallelujah!

Shane did get a small time out for trying to wrestle in the water and half pulling Iggy under. He was overstimulated and not thinking, I guess. It was only for a couple of minutes, but I wanted to get the "Don't try to drag your friends under water and make them yell when you're both in the deep end and not grade A swimmers" lesson taught. It stuck.

Break was blown 10 minutes till the hour. The boys all went to the kiddie pool to kill the time. They were many close moments where they tackled each other and nearly knocked their brains out on the side of the pool. It put Kate and I on edge a few times, but God protected them. It's like the walls were built with kid repellent technology.

Paul, Iggy's dad, came with me to watch the kids all jump in the deep end before they went home for dinner. Then it was the two amigos, Sam and Shane.

Shane shows a predisposition to thinking he can immediately join any social group in progress. There was a young boy (5?) and an older boy (11?) who knew each other. The older boy would tease the young boy and let the younger kid chase him and try to whack him with a kickboard (all standard older sibling type stuff, but they didn't look related). Shane started trying to throw water and say, "Take that!" etc on the older boy out of nowhere. He looked genuinely confused with, "Who is this kid?"

Later, Shane tried to jump in amongst a group of 10-14 year olds all jumping on and wrestling for a floating toy. He saw them playing and swam over without a moment's thought. 

Predictably, he didn't fare well. I heard him telling Sam later, "Those guys are mean!" I sat on the edge of the pool ready to dive in if there was a problem, but I thought the kids do a good job of not manhandling the pup trying to run with the bigger dogs.

Shane tried to splash the kids randomly and scowl them down later until I told him to cut it out. If there was a lesson to be learned, I'm not sure Shane learned it! He and Sam were swimming around grabbing kickboards and having a ball until the next break was called.

The boys reclaimed Sam's inner tube and wrestled for it all break. Then they floated around together some in the wading pool (whenever they weren't capsizing). Toby had the other inner tube. Really, I only saw Tobey and Kate during the breaks. It was divide and conquer!

A horsefly was the last main attraction of the night. I don't know who spotted it, but the boys were out to get it (and inform everyone they could that there was a horsefly and it could bite!).

They tried to splash and cannonball the horsefly out of the sky.

Then they wanted to use their floating toy as a 'trap' for the fly to land on and get splashed.

Needless to say, the fly evaded them easily.

Shane would have stayed another hour, but it was time to head out. Sam had brought Pokemon cards to show and the two geeked out and talked strategy.

They talked all the way to the cars and didn't want to get in the cars to say, "Goodbye!"

Hotel Mornings

We woke up on the 7th floor. We'd gone to sleep there, so it checked out. This would be a bad hotel for an acrophobe.

Hotels have elevators and breakfast. Something for everyone!

And this one had a pool! I told Shane we should do push-ups to swoll up before any pictures. He jumped in and left me hanging.

Carrie stayed to watch for a little bit which is a step for her. Then the little stink forgot how to swim, because he didn't have goggles. I kid you not.

The stink started to make his way across the pool (which is much shorter and shallower than his lesson pool) got water in his eyes and said, "Help!" He was treading water, trying to blink and wipe away the water in his eyes, and floundering at it. I swam over to him before Carrie jumped into the water with her phone and shoes on. He was near a wall and I would have let him attempt to figure it out if I didn't think Carrie would have dived in.

I made Shane swim a lap across the whole pool to show Carrie, "He just wasn't used to the water in his eyes," but the damage was done. She watched him swim back and forth twice and opted to go back to the room. We stayed and played for at least another forty minutes. Shane likes the water....when it's not in his eyes!

We showered off and crashed in the room afterward. Shane watched a lot more TV than normal.

Carrie fell asleep and I blogged while he was occupied.

We met up with Nana, Pop, Cole, and the foster girls at the kid's museum around 1 PM. Choosing to wait led to meeting up with the foster kids, after all.

The girls were nice, but highly distracted by the mob of toys, kids, and exhibits. Shane was, too! Carrie stayed for a little while, but the museum was packed with kids, noise, and chaos. She left to work in the car (There was a project she was working on).

Meanwhile, play kicked into high gear.

Cole had played with the girls all morning. They'd even gone to McDonald's together for lunch.

He switched gears to follow Shane once we arrived.

The two older girls took off one direction, the youngest another, and the boys another.

Luckily, there were three adults around. I followed the boys.

Our paths crossed from time to time. For the record: I have evidence that Shane did not put paper shreds in anyone's hair.

He may have thrown the first shreds and sown the idea, but his hands are (technically) clean.

Shane is a natural at play areas. He joins a random group or starts his own game. Kids join and he wanders off from place to place doing whatever his current thing is. Shane ended up playing with a group of kids and trying to stop some other kids from "robbering" from their bakery.

Cole's a little quieter. He doesn't jump in as quickly. He wandered off on his own to read some signs and wander on his own. I watched him as he slowly strolled around. Shane, I could hear. Even with all the other noise going on.

I spotted potty sign and suggested a pit stop. Shane was dragged along.

We found Nana, Pop, and the girls downstairs.

Shane loves water. Loves, loves it. He kept at it and hardly even noticed when Nana, Pop, the girls, and Cole left. We stayed and played until Carrie came in looking for a bathroom break.

I warned him not to get wet. I told him he'd get cold. There were aprons. However, I left him to his own devices after my warning. I didn't want to nag and experience is a great teacher.

He was cold.

How much he was dramatizing how cold he was is up for debate. The kid was only a few degrees shy of looking like he'd gone swimming.

I took him outside to try and dry out before we left. It would have been easier if it was warmer, but Shane had fun nonetheless.

We picked up some smoothies and rendezvoused back at Nana and Pop's for the rest of the night. Shane and Cole hopped on Mario Odyssey. The girls played, packed, and then were picked up by the social worker. Nana and Pop had allowed them to stay together for the night by taking them in. Now they were off to their new placement. That's tough. I will be praying for them.

Carrie discovered that Nana and Pop have a ton of Dirty Job episodes recorded. That became the show of choice for the remainder of the trip. Also, I put Carrie on the spot and told Shane she'd tell him a bedtime story. She rose to the occasion and started to tell him a modified version of Sword Art Online (What Carrie likes, she really likes!).

We never did make it hiking to see any waterfalls, but it was a memorable day nonetheless.

Cannonball!

Last day of this round of swim lessons.

Shane has improved!

I didn't realize the far end of the pool he was swimming in was 10 ft.

I sat at the far end to get a different vantage point. I'm too far away and Shane can't hear me when he's swimming, so I don't even try to correct him. The teacher got on his case for trying to swim over a girl he caught up with. The little boy in the class and Shane started bumping each other while waiting their turn to dive in once, as well.

Shane got to end practice in his favorite way ever.

I need to sign Shane up for April lessons soon. As long as he keeps improving, I don't plan on stopping.

Diving In

You'd think it'd be uncomfortable to have your goggles pin your ears down. Shane spent the whole lesson like that.

From what I can tell, the skill he needs to work on is turning his head to the side to breath.

Shane pops his whole head up no matter what stroke he's doing.

He's swimming further and further.

Three is a great class size for him. I'm going to try for the same time slot next month.

The diving practice at the end was fun to watch.