Swimming and Soccer

Nicholas and Lexi are in their fifth week of Little Stingrays and are doing a great job!  Nicholas can now swim along the lane line or the wall.  He sometimes stops to catch his breath and will grab onto the wall but he is definitely moving along by himself.  He needs to work on breathing to the side so that he can keep going without grabbing onto anything but he is doing a really good job and I am proud of his determination.

Lexi is now moving off the kick board and onto using her arms to help her move as well.  She happily jumps in every day and loves being in the water.  She gets cold very quickly though and generally doesn't last the full 30 minutes.  Most days it's only mid-70's here with wind, so it's hard to blame her.

They finish up their swim season next week, where they get to participate in an actual swim meet.  Lexi will be in the kick board race and Nicholas will be in the swim race.  Each kid will have a coach in the water with them but the idea is to expose them to what it is like to be on a real swim team.  It should be fun to watch!

Nicholas worked on diving in from the pool deck

Head down, arms extended..he eventually worked up to diving in from a kneeling position

Using her arms to swim with Coach Kristi

Nicholas is participating in a 4 week mini soccer class through the Parks and Rec.  To say that he has done well is an understatement.  Soccer may just be Nicholas' sport...which makes his daddy very happy!  Nicholas tried a 6 week soccer class when he had just turned 3 and HATED it.  He was too young and didn't understand the concept that the other players were trying to get the same ball as he was trying to get as well. 

Last week he really shocked us by just getting out there and really controlling the ball.  Mind you, he hasn't played soccer or really done any informal kicking with a soccer ball in a really long time.  But he did so well moving the ball down the field and getting the ball away from the other kids.  In fact, last Wednesday and tonight he scored all the goals for his team.  I think it helps that he's so tall...I think some of the kids are scared to go up against him.  Anyway, he seems to enjoy it...well mostly...he does complain about how much running is involved and how tired it makes him.  I think the time of day doesn't help.  The class is from 6:30-7:00 at night...not ideal.  However, I hope he wants to take more classes in the fall because he seems to really have a skill for soccer.  Time will tell!  Here are some action shots from today.

Locking arms with his best bud Mason...they keep having to be reminded not to push one another