Sink or swim?

We started "shrimp" swimming classes this week. Here is a brief overview of the first 4 classes:

Monday- entered the chilly water briefly (up to his thighs) and screamed for 30 minutes. Walked around the pools and sat on the edge while being distracted by car keys. After class was over, entered the family pool and seemed to really enjoy being in the water, however, still distracted by the keys. Wow are babies ever buoyant!!! It is almost impossible to dunk them under the water, which I did, and since class was OVER, he didn't mind. Fell asleep after 4 minutes in the car and conked out for 2 1/2 hrs when we got home.

Tuesday- entered a slightly warmer pool, very, very slowly. Played and splashed for about 20 minutes and even let me float him on his back and dunk him under the water. But, when he caught sight of the instructor (whom he is terrified of), he cried for the last 10 minutes. Fell asleep after 6 minutes in the car, but then boycotted his nap for another 2 hours when we got home.

Wednesday- Daddy came to watch and he played for about 10 minutes, then cried on and off for the last 20. He didn't mind sitting on the edge or standing on my legs, but floating was out of the question. Fell asleep after 6 minutes in the car, then took a normalish 1 hr nap at home.

Thursday- watched a little girl "walk" into the pool and thought he should do the same, so we slowly "walked" down the steps and he played, splashed, floated on his back, yelled, put his own face in the water (accidentally, but still) jumped off the edge into my arms (with a little assistance) and was even dunked under the water with hardly any protest. Still seems to be terrified of the instructor though... What a good way to end this week's classes. We have 4 more to go and hopefully by the end, he'll be able to "swim" under water. That seems like an awfully big request though...

Floating on a good day:

Out cold after swim class: