Swimming

I've just got back from walking the dogs in the rain...on my own! That's the first time I've walked them for ages, my partner usually takes them out on his bike for a run in the mornings, but I've decided to kill two birds, well three birds with one stone - get fitter, get some me time and the dogs get another walk. Lulu (one of our dogs) is really pleased with me because she wont stop licking me and snuzzling me while I'm trying to type this!
Jamie and Alex were not pleased that I wanted to go out on my own, Jamie was crying, saying that it wasn't fair and that "we do things together, that's what families do" she said. I'm sure she'll get used to it, I was only out for half an hour!

This morning we went swimming and it was a complete success! Jamie and Alex were soooo well behaved, I thought they were going to go crazy over the top with excitement but they were OK. My mum came with us. Amelia, it being her first time swimming absolutely LOVED it. She didn't have any armbands or anything and I let her do it all in her own time, I didn't just pick her up and take her into the water, I let her play around along the edge, she went in and out whenever she wanted, she eventually went a bit deeper, and after going in and out a few times, she went down the little slide a few times, then wanted to go deeper again and I showed her how she can float on her back, and on her front, and the second she said no, I let her get in the shallows again. I didn't get any swimming done at all, but that was OK because I want her to be completely confident in the water. I could see other parents taking their toddlers in for the first time, some of them took them straight into the deeper bit and I could see that the toddler was really scared.
It really made me think about how important it is to let children do things in their own time, without being pushed or forced. I could see how easily it is for a child to be put off something for a long time.

Alex took his swim-fin off after a while and was splashing around in the water having lots of fun, Jamie remembered how to swim underwater, she can do it very well, I just wish she would try and keep her head above the water!! When we got out it was starting to get really packed, especially the changing room but even though it was so busy, Jamie and Alex got dry and dressed without a hitch and Amelia was as happy as anything! I was really surprised, when we used to come before, it was so stressful with them both needing me to dry them and help them get dressed!

After spending a fortune in the cafe we came home, and I was just really pleased that it all went to plan, I can't wait to go during school time when it'll be a lot cheaper and less busy :)

Later on they were digging in the garden, said they were going to dig to Australia, which made Jamie ask again why people on the otherside of the world don't keep falling off,  so I tried to explain it a bit differently, and she then asked why does everything get pulled to the centre of the earth, so  I said that when she wants to, she can watch 'wonders of the solar system', that would explain it quite nicely.

I was also quite pleased to see Alex playing with Kiba, our other dog. He's hated our dogs for quite a while, says that we should just rid of them, but today he was throwing a ball for Kiba, and Kiba was being very good and dropping the ball and sitting nicely each time. Alex even went and gave him some dog biscuits as a reward for being so good!

Jamie has been reading 'James and the Giant Peach'. I bought a load of books from the charity shop the other day, amongst others there are 'The Secret Seven', a childrens version of Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein', 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer', and 'the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'. So far they have been ignored, I'm pretty sure that if either of them see that I might want them to read something, they won't even contemplate it.........I'll have to get better at strewing! (for some UK home edders -I'm sorry to mention Sandra Dodd!!)

So thats another day done, this one was much nicer than the last one ;)