Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming...

This face seems a bit familiar...

It seems like I've seen this somewhere recently.

You know, the whole "I don't want to be doing this" face.

Oh, yes of course.  How could I forget?

I probably blocked it out of my memory, as we haven't had a game in a couple of weeks.  (Crossing my fingers and holding my breath for this week's game.)

The girls just finished up swimming lessons.  This was completely the doing of my parents.  The only time I went to watch them was yesterday, their last day.

This reluctance to participate was the result of an incident that occurred last week.  The lifeguards decided to spontaneously blow their whistle, evacuate the pool, and do an impromptu rescue practice with the backboard.  Needless to say, my girls could not discern that this was ONLY for practice, leaving them therefore traumatized and swearing off swimming lessons for good.

My mother and I promised them that this was a one-time thing and that it would not happen again.

Well, unfortunately for the lifeguards, it did happen again....

And Mama Bear Mimi came out.

My girls have a strict policy of "Fool me once, shame on you....fool me twice, shame on me."

Even with my mother reprimanding the youngster lifeguards for doing their drills at a most inopportune time, along with our insisting that it was just practice and no one was seriously hurt....

The damage was already done.

The older one recovered a little from this experience and actually enjoyed showing off her new aquatic skills to me.

It helped that they had a total crush on their teacher.  Puddy in her hands.

The other sister, however, was not so forgiving.  She did do as her teacher instructed, but not happily, as she'd occasionally start crying for no apparent reason.  Poor thing.

I'm proud of them for finishing.  I was giving the lifeguard the evil eye the whole time, daring him to try it again.  If he thought Mimi Bear was bad....

I think once we get going to the pool this summer on a regular basis, they'll become much more acclimated.  

I've just got to figure out the logistics of managing two novice swimmers, a barely-walking toddler, and a newborn at the pool.

Can you say "Stressed Mommy"?

or "Multiple Flotation Devices"?

or how about "Send the big girls to the pool with their Mimi and Coach"?

Yeah, I like that one.