My water babies...

Well not quite, but so far they have both managed not to drown in their swimming lessons!
Rachel has been having lessons for 2 years now, ever since we came back from Crete when she was 3. Having never really swum before, whilst on our 2 (almost) consecutive holidays, she suddenly became interested in playing in the water and trying to swim. So when we returned home I got her signed up to swimming classes at the xcel leisure centre 5 minutes from our house. I think its an important skill and one i never enjoyed myself as a child so avoided at all costs! She started in the preschool class and stayed in that for 2 terms before moving in to the non-swimmers class for a further 2 terms and is now in the beginners class. She is not the strongest swimmer in her group - in fact she is probably the slowest - but she is slow and steady and she only wears a body belt with 3 floats on it - compared to the jacket and armbands she started with. Whilst in the non-swimmer group she made a couple of friends, one of whom introduced us to the gymnastics class she now goes to every Friday afternoon. We no longer see either of them at swimming as they moved ahead of her into the improvers classes, but we still see them both at gym, (as the other little girl also joined the gymnastics group too.) And it means I get to see my circle of mums there too!
Jack and I have been going to the Aquatots classes on and off since he was 5 months old - although to be honest, it's probably been more off than on. But this week when we went we found out that they have changed the rules and instead of letting you "pay as you go" and thus only turning up when you feel like it, now you have to pay (admittedly at a reduced price) for the whole term, so as such, I expect Jack and I will attend more regularly! They didn't tell us the time of the class had changed too though..So there we were stripped and ready 40 minutes early! As soon as I realised, I put my jeans and t-shirt back on - as I didn't feel too comfortable walking around half naked waiting for our lesson to start.
Having not been since before Christmas, it was a pleasant surprise to discover that Jack can actually balance himself in the water and even gave a good go at swimming without me holding him. I'm not saying he did it perfectly - after all he hasn't worked out how to co-ordinate arms and legs yet - but he managed to move a little bit whilst kicking, without too much help from me.
This development, however, has made me desperate for our next holiday. Fingers crossed there will be no natural disaster to stop the flight, or epidemic to wipe us out before we leave this time and assuming no-one is ill while we are away (I know I am asking a lot here as we have not achieved all these things on any previous holiday) then we could have a fantastic time playing in the pools on holiday, with both kids even doing some swimming!