Swim Lesson Number 4 and Number 5

We sadly missed last week's swim lesson. Steve had went to Chicago to compete in a regional cyber defense competition over the weekend. Which left me having to work on Tuesday night to make up for being off while he was gone. Go Red Team!! (Very proud of him)

No spring has not sprung in Wisconsin. After having a cold winter- when the temperatures hit 40 degrees out- it is the beginning of shorts season here. We went for our first family bike ride of the season with snow packed along the sides of the bike trail. Rachel was bundled up in her bike trailer with extra blankets.

  Rachel loves going for bike rides. She happily chats away.She loves pointing out dogs that are on the trail walking.

Yesterday was my mom's birthday. We packed up the kids and dog and heading up to the Iron Mountain area. This is about 4.5 hours away. It was 24 degrees out up there and definitely did not look like spring.

This picture was taken just north of Pembine and the snow did not get any less the further north you went. We saw a lot of turkeys eating the road salt on the sides of the roads.It was great to see Grandma and Papa and have birthday cake with them. I felt bad that we had to head back home only a few hours after we got there due to school and work schedules, physical therapy appointments and swim lessons.

Rachel had physical therapy today. She was able to stand for longer periods of time. She has been doing the full flight of steps (all 14) in our home about 4-5 times each day. She had been alternating her working leg and support leg while doing the stairs. She did a few more wobbly hesitant steps with her therapist. Rachel did a good job of standing up with her butt against the ottoman for support. She did not wobble or need to put out her hands for balance. I wish I would have recorded her. She seems to becoming more aware of her legs and feet. The more she wears her night AFOs and SMOs during the day- the more flexible her ankles are becoming. She rarely pulls her leg away when I stretch out her feet and ankles.

Swim lesson 5

We began today's class by singing the song about who came to swim class. Next we practiced sitting on the edge of the pool and doing our 1,2,3 Go. Instead of lifting Rachel into the water I let her push herself off of the pool edge and into my arms in the water. Next the instructor had the babies reach for small (about 9 inch) rubber balls in the water. When the baby would grab ahold of the ball you would turn the baby over onto their backs in the water. After we did this we helped the babies pick up all of the balls out of the water. We then were given small kick boards and pool toys. For today's lesson the baby just needed to get use to being by a kick board. We placed some of the pool toys on top of the kick boards and would let the babies play with the toys and try to hold onto the kick boards. Next we sang the song Ring Around the Rosie. We would alternate with splashing our hands on the water with blowing bubbles in the water. At the end of the song you were to have your baby facing you and dunk them in the water. The instructor recommended lightly blowing on their face first and then dunking them by pushing them away from you in the water. When you lift the baby back out of the water you need to cheer and act like it was the greatest thing they ever did. (You are to show no fear or apprehension in your expression or else they will pick up on it and also become fearful- this was not a problem for us as we do this at each doctor's visit.) The first time I dunked Rachel she swallowed a small amount of water and clung to me for dear life. Then a pool toy floated by and she forgot all about doing it. I dunked her 2 more times and after each of those times she did responded like it was no big deal and that she does it all the time. She did better with the dunking than I would have.I think it helps that she watches her sisters dunk themselves in the pool. We ended the lesson by having the babies help pick up the pool toys.