Toddler Swimming Lessons

I love to swim. I was a total pool rat growing up and shockingly enough I was a certified lifeguard for several years and did aquatic therapy to children with special needs. If I'm at a hotel even for one night and it has a pool I will be in it. I think I've passed this love of water on to Blondie Boy.



He loves the water and splashes and jumps in over and over. He even attempts to paddle some and will "kick kick kick" when asked in the pool. When we were on holiday we had a Konfidence float suit which has 8 removable floats that you can take out as your child gets more confident in the water. It was great because it gave him the extra bit of buoyancy but he could still move around and kick while lying in the correct position in the water.


Personally I'm completely against things like water wings or floaties because they give children a false sense of security in the water and can be detrimental to their swimming development but since the float suit still requires you to hold yourself up and swim it aids in development rather than hinders it.


When we got back from France I decided to try him at swim lessons when we got back and he loved the singing and chasing rubber ducks in the water but going under water not so much. Apparently if you blow in a baby's face before you dunk them under water they have an instinct to breathe in and therefore not drink the pool when they go under. Blondie Boy has no such instinct.


He goes under and comes up coughing and sputtering having drank half the pool. He can blow bubbles in the pool (one of the first things I taught back in the day) but he still doesn't quite grasp in any way shape or form to keep his mouth shut UNDER water.


I'd like to take him back to lessons but I wonder if maybe it's better to just try and keep taking him on my own (which is free) and focusing on getting him to go under water before trying lessons again? What age was your child when you taught them to swim and did you do it yourself or go to lessons? What is the magical secret to teaching them they don't have gills and can't breathe under water?


The Konfidence Float Suit was provided to Transatlantic Blonde for review but all opinions are our own.

Things I "learned" on Holiday

-I can live without regular internet, but I don't want to live without regular internet access. I like not being on the laptop but I missed talking to my friends and family and knowing what's going on in the world. There has to be a happy medium between too much and none.


-I don't really like wine. Sure it tastes nice sometimes but I'm never going to be that person who tweets about how they can't wait to get home to a glass of wine or who sniffs corks and all that. 


-When it's toddler skull versus adult face, face will always lose. A headbutt to the nose (which left me vaguely concussed) left my nose swollen for two days and then Blondie Boy tripped on NBH and landed noggin first on my cheekbone. Cheek is just now starting to be less tender. I can only foresee more child inflicted injuries in the future since the two of us are both accident prone and he's a wild ass.


-I not as much of a fat ass as I think I am. I'm not skinny but I'm not as big as I think I am in my head.

-I've got an amazing husband. I still can't believe he found sunglasses for my birthday based on me saying I tried on awesome "diamanté Karen Millen shades" at Manchester airport. He got the EXACT ones I wanted and that's just the tip of his awesomeness.


-It must be so frustrating to be Blondie Boy and only have some words and signs to communicate what he is thinking. My French is appalling and while I could ask for baguettes and pastries at the boulangerie and ask if something had egg in it, that was about it. It was really frustrating knowing that I couldn't communicate exactly what I wanted to say.


-I really want to move some place someday with proper summers. When I lived in the US I always wanted to live somewhere with an outdoor pool; I used to sneak into the apartment complex next to mine and layout at their pool. Having our own pool at the villa just reignited my desire to have a pool and to do so we are going to have to move some place warmer. I was a major pool rat growing up and Blondie Boy loves the water as well. Indoor pools are nice, but nothing beats swimming in the sunshine.

-I've got amazing inlaws. NotBlondeHusband and I were able to spend time in the pool together as my mother-in-law would take Blondie Boy when he'd had enough and dry/shower/dress him. Having BB's Grandma, Auntie Katie and John around to help play with or sit in the house while he slept was amazing. I can't imagine what a vacation just the three of us would have been like.

24 Hour Heat Wave!

It hit 75 in Glasgow on Friday and when it gets that warm here you take advantage of it in case it goes away (which it totally did when it dropped 20 degrees today) so we broke out the BBQ and Blondie Boy's very first paddling pool! It was a gift from his Grandma with a ball game and fancy sprinklers and he LOVED it!  

I've been getting jealous of all my American friend's photos of their kids in pools so I'm glad that even if it was just for one day my boy got to swim in his backyard, too! I've promised certain readers :cough:myMom:cough: I'd post more photos of the boy so here he is enjoying the lovely Friday we had!

At the end of the evening he was very tired and his hair was very curly :)

Wordless Wednesday: Swimming!