Swim Lessons and my favorite expression from J

So as we all know Joshua is a cautious kid and has to do something for a while before fully participating. We signed up for swim lessons this winter at a local indoor swim school. I have to give them a shout out because it's a pretty great swim school. Emler Swim School. They are in a strip center (which I thought was a little sketchy but since I had gotten recomendations..), but when you go inside they have 2 pools. Since I knew that J would be cautious and not do it without me, I signed up for the Waterbabies class. You go in and the pool is HEATED!! Like to bath water temperature. Sounds gross but so effective for little ones! Anyways, second is that we are only going once a week. I thought this would be better for Joshua since he would freak out on the first day (which he did, and subsequent ones after that) and then we would only go once a week. So it's long..until the summer but I thought that would help him until the summer came. Anyways, the first 4 lessons weren't terrible, but he refused to free float by himself in a noodle or ring, so that caused some difficulties. Today was our big breakthrough. He still got in with fussing, but he discovered that he liked the floating and he played in the ring! His teacher kept asking him if he was the Real Joshua Roy. A little candy might have helped also....:)

So we're progressing with jumping, playing on the stairs, going down the slide and going under water. He loves it so much he is dancing outside the pool trying to talk to his teacher while she is teaching her other class. My favorite expression he has right now is after he jumps in the water or we're playing and he goes underwater, he comes up with water streaming down his little face, eyes closed, but with this wide closed mouth smile on his face. No crying about the water in his face, just pure joy. I wish I had a camera just for that moment to get that expression. It makes me happy that he is finally enjoying himself and relaxed enough to just have fun!