Look Mom, No Hands!

Drew is in another round of swimming lessons right now that occur only on Saturday mornings. I'm sometimes reluctant to put him in the Saturday-only classes because I wonder if he loses anything he's gained in the week downtime, but it was the only option for classes for him this time, so it's what we went with. Last week he had no class because of a triathlon in town that was using the pool, so yesterday it had been two weeks since he'd been in the pool. It was also, however, parent observation day. So as I sat on the edge of the pool watching Drew I think he was determined to show me that he had no problem retaining his water skills from week to week.

After some assisted practice swims with the forward and backward stroke, Drew was ready to show off. His teacher had each of the kids float on their back. Drew is the youngest in the class (again) and the older boys are much stronger swimmers than he is, so the teacher typically has to support Drew during his back float. Not this time though. As I looked on through my camera lens, I realized his teacher had removed his hands from supporting Drew and my baby boy was actually still floating. I was so glad he had chosen parent observation day to do this for the first time and I could tell him right after how proud I was of him.

Drew still has plenty of work to do on improving his strokes in the water (as you can see in the video) but he's improving so much.

Here's a few more pictures I took during Drew's lessons yesterday.

Waiting his turn on the wall.

Practicing freestyle with the noodle for support.

Another pic on the wall.

Drew had some very red eyes to show for all his underwater retrievals of these diving sticks during class.

I'm pretty sure Drew could spend the entire 30 minutes of his lesson jumping in the water, climbing the ladder, and jumping in again. To say he loves jumping in the water might be the biggest understatement of the year.

Summer Swimming

Drew just completed another round of swim lessons this morning and he's improving so much! We're so proud of our little fishy...well, technically he is a Seal now, not a fishy, but you know what I mean. These lessons were 4 days a week for 2 weeks and were perfectly timed before preschool. As always, he loved his teacher, listened well, and displayed no fear whatsoever.

Here's some pictures and short videos I took on parent observation day and the last day of class.

Let's get this class started--last one in's a rotten egg!


Here's Drew demonstrating the backfloat. He seems to be more comfortable swimming on his back in general.


I love this picture. His poor teacher. Could my child look more spastic?


Splashing it up with the other kids as they kick on the wall.


Drew working on kicking on his back using the kickboard for flotation. We have to work on his kicking form!

Drew practicing his underwater bobs.

Drew and one of his classmates looking underwater for their rings.

Drew is always so happy in the warming pool.

My little swimmer all wrapped up

On the last day of class they usually show the kids water rescue equipment, practice with life jackets, and then have some fun on the slides and diving boards.

Here's Drew going down the slide with the junior lifeguard.

Drew was the youngest in his class and yet, the only one, who would jump off the diving board without holding the teacher's hand. Here he is preparing.

And...his jump!

Weekend in Phoenix (yes, we're crazy)

So Phoenix is probably not everyone's first choice for a summer weekend getaway, considering their temperatures are routinely over 110. Although we have warm summers in Sierra Vista as well, with the mountains and higher overall elevation, it's rare for us to top 100 and there's usually a nice breeze. We just don't have the same oppressive heat that's featured in Tucson and Phoenix. So, you might think we were crazy to head to Phoenix for the weekend in the middle of July, but it was Elizabeth's last weekend with us and we wanted to do something special for her. So, we booked a suite at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort that features a huge River Ranch outdoor water complex (http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/PHXSPPR-Pointe-Hilton-Squaw-Peak-Resort-Arizona/index.do).

We arrived Friday late afternoon, slathered on the sunscreen, and hit the pools right away. I didn't get too many pictures of us in the water since 1) it's way too hot to be outside taking pictures and NOT be in the water, 2) our camera isn't waterproof, and 3) I didn't want to miss out on all the fun.

Here's a few I did manage from Saturday morning before I jumped in line for the slide too. Drew was just tall enough to be able to ride the water slide by himself. They didn't allow tandem sliders so we worked out a system where one adult would go down before him to be the catcher and the other adult or Liz would stay with Drew at the top to get him on. We probably went down the slide at least 20 times during the weekend.

Here's Bill, Liz, and Drew headed up the steps for the first slide Saturday morning


Bill getting ready to splash


Here comes Drew!

Lizzie's turn

Here's Drew turning the corner

Lizzie laying down to work up speed. We tried to convince Drew to lay back but he opted to sit for all of his slides.

Here's the 3 of them on the lazy river

Daddy twirling Drew in the tube

Semi-aerial shot of the view

View of the 3 of them in the lazy river from one of the bridges

A pic of Mommy & Drew...so we have some evidence I was on this trip too!

Drew sporting his brand new life jacket

Drew catching a ride on Dad's back

Drew practicing his backfloat

Swimming on his own with the life jacket

And although we didn't get video of it, we can say that we were witness to Drew swimming on his own (sans life jacket) for a few seconds at a time. He was jumping in from the side of the pool and, after a half dozen jumps or so, Bill started waiting just a few seconds to grab him and Drew started using his arms and legs to keep his head above water. It wasn't swimming per se, more like treading water, but it was Drew all by himself in the water! Very exciting. He's in another round of swim lessons right now and seems to be getting better and better by the day.

Saturday night we went to Scottsdale to have dinner at P.F. Chang's--yum yum. Here's a couple pics outside the restaurant.

Elizabeth, Drew, & Bill

Family shot


We were all sad to see Elizabeth go back home a couple of days later, though Drew is for sure missing his train and board game playmate the most. We did get a bonus visitor out of it though. Bill's Uncle Mark, a retired United employee, flew standby out to pick her up and was able to spend one night at the house with us. Then the two of them took off the next day and were able to get on each of the flights they wanted (standby and first class no less!) to arrive back in Wilkes-Barre late Tuesday night.

Here's one last shot of Drew & Lizzy the morning she left.

Hope you had fun Lizzy--we miss you!

Splashing It Up as a Seal

Drew has now graduated from the Otters swim class up to the world of the Seals. His current session of lessons is his second go round with Seals as the class is designed for 5-8 year olds. He was young to start it to begin with, but after 3 sessions of Otters he had learned all there was to learn at that level. So, we think he'll probably be in Seals for several months while he masters the various skills at this level.

Since my parents were here for Easter and Bill had gone running early that day, all four of us went to watch him this past Saturday, which he was very happy about. It was parent observation day so I was able to sneak up a little closer and get some action shots of our little swimmer.

Drew climbing on the railing before class.


Drew practicing kicking on his back in the shallow water.


Drew working on his backwards big arms with his teacher.



Drew running out of the big pool after his teacher announced it was time to go to the warming pool.

All wrapped up with Grandma after getting out of the water.

Climbing, Hanging, Bouncing, Jumping & Laughing

You know...all those things 3 year olds love to do. Drew finished a round of swim lessons the weekend after New Year's, began gymnastics the week after, and still enjoys (thanks to the AZ weather) weekly play dates at the park. All have given him the opportunity to show off his monkey skills. Here's a few of the pictures and a video from the last few weeks.

Big smiles before his last swim class

Jumping in the warming pool

Hanging on the monkey bars

Climbing

Drew gets to the top of the rainbow monkey bars and doesn't know what to do.

Another one that Drew doesn't really know how to negotiate once he gets past the first few climbing steps.

Hanging & sliding

Riding the bouncy whale

Climbing the ladder at gymnastics

Hanging from a monkey bar

Climbing his way onto the balance beam...

Scooching across the balance beam, looking back at me frequently to make sure I'm watching and taking pictures. He has now started to request to see each picture after it is taken, which obviously doesn't work during Tumble Tots class. But the second thing he does at the end of class, after showing me his hand stamp of the day, is ask to see the pictures I took.

Preparing for a somersault

They were supposed to be practicing seat jumps, but Drew looks like he's practicing sliding into second base.

And, in case it wasn't obvious, I am loving my new Christmas camera and the 5x optical zoom!

Finally, in case any of you are reading and would like to comment, but aren't all that internet-savvy, I thought I'd add an explanation of how to do it. At the bottom of each post, to the right of where it says "Posted by The Cherkauskas Family" there is a place that says how many comments there are. If you click on that, it will take you to the comment page where you will see any existing comments and a place on the right where you can leave a comment. So, you type your comment in there, and then below that you choose an identity option. The default button is probably "Anonymous" unless you have and are logged in to your blogger or gmail account. To post with a nickname, click on the "Name/URL" button and then type in the nickname you want to use. Then just click on Publish comment. You should then see a message near the top of the page that says something like "Comment will appear after blog owner's approval." Voila!