Dad, I impressed myself...

We signed Katelyn and Anabelle up for swim lessons at the local YMCA. When choosing a category for Katelyn to swim with, they had two groups that had lessons at the same time, one which was a decent but beginner swimmer, and the other for a class of those who know how to swim all the strokes good. Well we signed Katelyn up for the beginner lessons since she has never had lessons in the past, and while we knew she could make it from one side of the pool to the next, I did not expect much more. When we showed up for the first evening of lessons, I found out that they took all the kids that signed up (only 5) and put them all in one class, which happened to be the more advanced. The teacher, probably not knowing any better, immediately asked the kids to jump in and swim down to the end of the pool and back - 50 meters. I was worried for Katelyn, and in fact walked the length of the pool watching her carefully since I knew the teacher was spending some time with a student who was struggling a bit. Surprisingly Katelyn made it all the way down, and back. Boy was I proud of her. I thought for sure that was all the long swimming they would do since I could tell the kids were all tired. Wow was I wrong.

The teacher had them turn around and go again, there and back. Then she had them do it twice doing back stroke, and again twice doing breast stroke. I didn't even know Katelyn knew how to do that, but she caught on quickly. After making it back, she let them rest shortly and then had them swim even more laps doing freestyle stroke. I was getting tired just watching them. I mean honestly I can hardly swim there and back without having to stop and catch my breath. Yet my little girl was out there making it happen, and like some of the kids she was not needing any assistance from the teacher. She just was toughing up and getting it done.

By the end of the 40 min lesson, almost all of it swimming laps, I grabbed Katelyn out of the pool and told her how super impressed I was with her. Her response, "You know Dad, I impressed myself!" I was just so proud of my little Kiki. She has never had a swim lesson, besides the time I have spent with her, and she blew us all away. I was actually so impressed that on the way out I noticed the YMCA was having a kids triathlon this weekend, so we decided to sign Katelyn up for it so she could swim, bike, and run her way to finishing her first big competition. It will take place tomorrow morning, and I will be sure to post the results on here. But win or lose, I can't say enough about how proud I am of my little trooper, Katelyn. She absolutely impresses me!