Swimming

Not surprisingly, since we've moved here we swim a lot more often. As a result, Lyra's pretty comfortable in the water. I've always felt that swimming lessons were one of those must-do things every parent should enroll their kids into. And I still feel that way - but so far, we haven't had Lyra in any lessons (other than about 3 lessons we went to when she was 1-year old, but the pool water was only 75 degrees and that was just too cold for both of us). Since moving here, we have a pool in back and a pool at the health club, plus practically everywhere you go here there is a pool. So far, Lyra has been learning by just horsing around in the water - with a few tips and pointers thrown in here and there.

Last year, Lyra made the leap from needing a swimming vest to being comfortable swimming around without one. She still didn't venture too far away from the side of the pool, but was willing to swim about 5-10 yards toward us. And for the most part, she still needed to be in water that wasn't over her head.

This year, it looks like Lyra will learn to be a lot more comfortable swimming down into the deeper areas of the pool. She's been able to tread water a little bit and is feeling more and more comfortable with diving for pool toys down into the deep. Sooner or later, I still want her to get some swimming lessons, but for now - I'm just glad that she's getting a lot of opportunities to swim and get comfortable in the water.

Over the winter, we've had a bit of a break in swimming. Our pool out back doesn't have a heater - and I was surprised how many months of the year it's really out of commission. Part of it is that it doesn't really get a full day of sunshine until mid-April and that's about when it's warm enough for me. Russ got into it sometime in late March I think. Then in about late September or mid-October it's again too cold. So a good portion of the year where we really don't use it. We've thought about getting a heater - would cost about $1,400 or something like that. But never did it - and now there's only one more winter left in our stay here.

The pool at the health club is temp controlled - so we can use that a bit more. But after about November and until the end of January it's too chilly for swimming - at least for me it is. So, we do have a couple months of the year where we don't swim that much.








Sorry for the recent pause in blogging. I've had a few issues getting pictures to post onto my entries. And rather than figure it out, I've been a bit lazy.