We are officially done with swim lessons for the year! Woohoo! It's been a long 5 weeks for the boys (and Dad!), but we're so proud of how well they have done in their ISR training. I hadn't been able to attend any lessons in the past 2 weeks due to my work schedule, so I was happily surprised at how far they've come when I joined their final session on Friday. All 3 boys know how to roll on to their backs and float, regardless of how they enter the water. What a transformation it has been. They went from crying through their entire lessons a few weeks ago to happily splashing and playing with Ms. Donna in the pool on Friday while confidently floating. Their last week of lessons included floating with both winter and summer
clothes on (so they can feel the difference when they have added weight
of clothes on them should they fall in the water). These lessons taught them a great new skill that we hope they never actually have to use. But it's a huge comfort to know that they would know how to save themselves if (God forbid) they somehow end up in a body of water without us around.
Mega kudos to Will, who took on the HUGE solo task of getting all three boys up, fed, and out the door 5 days a week for the past month. It's not an easy job by any means, and he did it with (minimal) complaining. As with all things when it comes to raising triplets, the work that goes in to getting the boys out the door often takes longer than the activity itself. It would take an hour and a half to get them all prepped to go, and the lessons were 30 minutes...total (10 minutes per child). Repeat that cycle every day, Monday-Friday. And Will was never late or missed a single lesson. :) It's definitely one of those things where it would have been easier to skip out on ISR training because it would require too much effort for 30 minutes of lessons each day. I'm grateful that Will recognized the importance of the lessons and was willing to make the sacrifices to get the boys there every day. We've been told by Ms. Donna that, like riding a bike, their new skill is one that they won't forget. They do encourage refresher courses each year, and hopefully by next year the boys will be developed enough to learn the next phase- swim, float, swim.
For now, though, we are glad we took the lessons, and definitely glad that they're over! We're happy to have the dietary restrictions lifted and we are certainly happy to not have to chart any more BUDS sheets! Donna took some pictures with her camera during a couple lessons and I grabbed a few pictures on their final day. I think the boys will miss seeing Ms. Donna every day!
