Swimming Lessons

Monday evening at dinner we broke the news to Nece that we were going to take swimming lessons. I fully anticipated her to be excited, and for that reason we chose to keep it under wraps until the last minute.

As expected, she was VERY excited. It's the last thing she talked about before bed, the first thing she talked about Tuesday morning, and proudly announced to Sue that we were taking swimming lessons. I wasn't worried about doing this with her AT ALL.

Tuesday, I pulled into the driveway about 5PM. Nece was obviously very excited to see me, as I wasn't out of the van and she was at the side...
"Mommy, I have my bathing suit on. I ready to go."
"Okay, Nece. Mommy needs to change and we'll go pretty soon."

That had to be the LONGEST 35 minutes of this kids life. Asking every 2 minutes "is it time to go?"

Finally, all packed up and ready to go. We drive over... talking about how we aren't here to 'just swim', we have to listen to the teacher, and no crying when it's time to leave. OK mom... we're in total agreement.

I pulled into the parking lot and went to Nece's side. Oh my gosh, if I could have captured the grin on this kids face and the pure joy as she clapped her hands.

Into the community center we go. Into the locker room. Put our stuff away and out to the pool area. We're about 5 minutes early, so we play in the water.

Then... I started to notice, we were the only ones without bright pink wristbands and I looked at the clock. It was about 6PM (start time) and I didn't really see any instructor like person.

6:05- nothing.
6:10- seriously, I'm starting to get mad. How can the instructor be late. Granted, it's probably a high school or college kid, but how rude.

Finally, I go over to the lifeguard and ask... are we in the right place for swimming lessons tonight?

I'm sorry, there are no lessons tonight. They start next week.

Oh, no. How am I going to explain this to a 3 year old that cannot contain her excitement?

Simply put, "Nece, mommy screwed up. There are no swimming lessons tonight. We have to wait one more week."

Definitely only partially registering. But no meltdown. My next thing, how in the heck am I going to get this kid out of the pool?

After about 10 minutes of playing in the water together, I get the words I was hoping to hear, "mommy, I have to go potty."

SWEET! Easy exit on this one. No tears and fully satisfied with her 25 minutes of playing in the water.

We arrived home, and daddy excitedly asked, "Nece, how were swimming lessons?"
"We didn't get to have swimming lessons. Mommy screwed up."
Daddy looked at me all confused and I had to admit, next week. I was wrong on my dates.

Shoot! We'll try again next week. I've already double checked start date and start time. Let's hope next Tuesday is as simple as this past Tuesday was for 'fake swimming lessons'.