I had Ari for the whole day today. My son dropped him off before he went to work, which meant I was up at 6:30, dressed and ready for the day by 6:45, which is way out of my normal routine. I had time to make toast and tea for breakfast before the boys arrived. Not only was I looking after him all day but today was Ari’s first swimming lesson. It’s a good thing I love him, because I had to put on a swimsuit and take my bebe into the pool with all the young mothers in the class. Suffice it to say that I was easily 30 years older and 50 pounds heavier than they were.

We were a little early for the class and I had to hold Ari back from the water, but just before the class started we hopped in, along with all the others in the class. It was fun. First we sang a song as we bobbed the little ones up and down in the water. Then we were instructed to hold our little swimmers under the arms, facing us as we backed up in the water, creating a slipstream so their legs went out behind them. We were supposed to blow bubbles in the water and encourage the kids to do the same. Ari was a little bigger than the other kids and I had trouble keeping his feet off me and he didn’t blow bubbles. As well, the water got quite shallow as we came out of the lazy river part of the pool and it was very hard for me to maintain my balance in a crouched position, moving backwards. I was not the most graceful person in the pool and I was having trouble with my suit. The top was riding up and the bottoms were riding down. So I had to manoeuvre Ari with one hand while I made myself presentable with the other. Believe me, no one wanted to see what I was putting out there! Thankfully I was able to do it while still in a crouched position.

The next thing we did was to hold the kids under the arms again, but this time they were on their backs with their heads resting on one of our shoulders. I struggled a little with this as Ari resisted it. However, he was quite happy to let the instructor take him and he did it perfectly. Clearly the problem wasn’t with Ari. Then we went close to the edge of the pool and again, with our hands under their arms, we “swam” the kids to the edge, letting them grab onto it. Ari loved that. After a few back and forths, we sat the kids up on the edge and encouraged them to jump in. Ari wasn’t nervous at all but he needed my arms up out of the water, so he was jumping into my arms not into the water. Of course I dropped my arms as soon as he was in them so his body went into the water. I think we could have done that for a long time. The last thing we did was to let the kids walk around in the water in the very shallow part of the pool. Again, this was uncomfortable for me as I am not as agile and limber as I once was. But walking around bent over was worse so I figured it out. The instructor said the purpose of the lessons was to make sure the kids enjoyed the water and the pool, that there wasn’t much she could actually teach the kids to do. Well, Ari should be at the head of the class because he was good at everything, in spite of his Mimi and her shortcomings.

Ari wasn’t upset to leave and he cooperated well as I got him into his dry clothes. He was a little quick off the mark to leave so it was good I just had to throw a cover-up over my suit and follow him. When we got home I changed into dry clothes and he had a good lunch. He wasn’t the least bit tired. I was exhausted. My hair dried all wavy and poufy but I didn’t have any time to fix it. I was thankful to run a brush through it!

So, even if there wasn’t much for the kids to learn, I learned something very important. I need a better swimsuit, with a longer top and a higher waisted bottom. My old suit is fine for lounging around the pool or for slowly submerging into the water, but it isn’t fine for anything active. So when Ari was playing I checked out the website for Swimco, as they have a store in Coquitlam Centre. Guess what Mimi is doing tomorrow, after a sleep-in and a leisurely breakfast? And shopping for a new swimsuit will be only slightly less uncomfortable than wrestling with my old one in the pool.

Postscript – Well, it turns out shopping for a bathing suit wasn’t all that bad. I found two bottoms that were perfect and they were several sizes smaller than I thought they would be. I found a top that was on sale at Swimco, good thing because the bottoms were not on sale. And then I found another top at the Bay. Both were a size I haven’t worn in a while. Now, please don’t burst my “feeling good about bathing suit shopping and my body” bubble by telling me swimsuits should be a little smaller than your regular clothes because they get heavier and stretch a little in the water and that sizes have increased. Right now I’m riding a wave of body positivity and I don’t need your dose of reality bringing me down.