We're back at swim lessons again. Last week, one night was cancelled due to pool maintenance and one night Kylee took the kids. So it was my first night back at the pool. Anchorage has has issues with its swimming pools -- getting them funded to be open. As a result, lessons continue to get switched up between pools based on availability. We were at West pool last Fall, Service pool in the Spring, and now back at West. Everytime we switch pools, Cate has trouble making the change. Last time we switched pools to West, it took her almost a month to get her back into the pool (and at $8/lesson you can imagine how unhappy I was about that!).

Last night, she again started hanging on to my leg and refusing to get in. I was exasperated, to say the least. After specifically asking her if she wanted to swim at the West Pool, signing her up, paying for the lessons, scheduling our lives around the lessons, and driving all the way across town on $4/gallon gas, and she refuses to get in. I could see her just being ready to get in the pool when the month of lessons was done. Grrr... I can't say it brought out my best mothering skills.

Thankfully, Chris was on top of it. Chris is one of the swim lesson head honchos, and she happened to be in the pool last night filling in for a missing coach. She quickly moved things around so that she could be coaching in Cate's level. She talked Cate into getting in the pool, starting off with just bobbing her head in the water, and soon got Cate to show off her skills. Once she was in the water, she was having the time of her life. Even Chris was amazed at how well Cate does once she's in the water -- she seemed scared to death to get in, but then came out of the gate with an enormously powerful stroke. She's close to moving up to level 5, which is pretty unusual for a 4 year old. If we can just get her through this fear of getting in....