This week and next Wes is in “swim school,” which is what we call his swim lessons. Before his first day I really wasn’t sure if he would like being in the pool or not. The last time he was in a pool (in California, in April) he didn’t seem comfortable.

Well, I shouldn’t have worried. Wes LOVES swim school. I take him to a house not too far from our own that has a swimming pool in their backyard. The owner’s adult kids offer the lessons. Wes shares his 45-minute lesson with another child. When the teacher is taking the other kid across the pool, Wes sits on the steps and waits his turn.

Supposed to wait his turn, anyway. The time he spends sitting on the steps is time I spend reminding him to stop throwing things into the pool, to stay on the steps, to stop splashing the other kids, etc. It’s a little tiresome sometimes.

Today, actually, while he was “sitting” on the steps he decided to jump into the water by himself. Of course there was no one to catch him because his teacher was on the other end of the pool with the other kid. Now, if I had thought and not just reacted, I could have snagged another swim teacher (whose back was to Wesley) and asked her to pull my son from the bottom of the pool. But since moms don’t think, they just react, I walked into the pool myself and pulled him back to the side.

Here he is considering throwing something in. He loves those rings. His teacher lets him throw the ring in, and then they go fetch it together.

On his first lesson on Monday, the teacher dipped Wesley’s face under just up to the nose. But by the second day Wes went all the way under. He takes it well.

Here he is on the boogie board, practicing kicking (“splash your feet!”).

Wesley’s least favorite activity is floating on his back. I think the teacher spends most of that time getting whapped in the face by Wesley’s hands as he flails around wildly.

But Wesley’s favorite thing is when his teacher throws him in the air and catches him. Like so.

And, of course, Carissa is here too. I keep her in her carseat for as long as I can, but usually by the end she wants out.

At the end of class the kids get to do fun things, like go down the water slide or jump off the high dive (it’s not so high; you can see it in the picture behind Carissa).

Today the other kid in class started half-way up the water slide (her dad set her up there) and slid down, but she wasn’t happy about it. The teacher caught her in his arm (his other arm was holding Wes). But she was crying, and that got Wes crying. But both kids got over it and Wes went down the slide a little, too.

Then they went to the side of the pool. The girl jumped in first, the teacher catching her. When I asked Wes if he wanted to jump in, he said, “No.” But I nudged him to the edge anyway and he jumped in just fine.

Then the girl went to the high dive. She was sacred to jump off, but the teacher said he would hold her hand (from the water below, where he was waiting to catch her). She jumped in, and then it was Wesley’s turn.

I asked Wes if he wanted to jump off the high dive, and of course he said, “No.” But we went over anyway, and without hesitation he jumped off–BIG jump–before his teacher even had time to grab onto Wesley’s hand to help him jump.

Both kids did it one more time apiece. After his second time, Wes emerged from the water saying, “Yeah!” and gave a high-five to a bystander on the edge of the pool.

Swim School is good.