Swim Lessons and Bribes

Our afternoons the past two weeks were spent having swim lessons with Miss Brooke. She is one of the most encouraging and patient women I've ever met, and Cade did a great job in her lessons! I can say that the lessons were great now that they are over... they didn't exactly start out that way. Hence, the title of this blog :) This was the first time Cade took swim lessons without Chance or me in the water. He was not too excited about that, so we implemented a reward system. Here's our progress:

First day of swim lessons - warming up to Brooke and the two other boys. Cade did pretty well with his kicking and strokes by the end.



By the 2nd day, he was feeling pretty proud of himself and made sure we were watching him every time it was his turn.



End of the first week - ice cream treat!



Week two of lessons - getting more adventurous! Cade loved splashing Brooke when he jumped in.



One of the things we worked hardest on was Cade putting his eyes in the water. Here is proof that he can do it!



Cade has entered the "I want to buy.... (fill in the blank with anything from the Animal Planet line at Toys R Us)" phase. He has made a wish list of items that he wants that hangs on the fridge. We promised that if he followed Brooke's instructions every day at swim lessons that he could choose one item off of his wish list. So, we are now the proud owners of a very large dragon. I really don't know where Cade's obsession with dragons started, but he loves them maybe even more than dinosaurs. He even smiled for the picture!!



In the above picture, Cade divided his animals into plant eaters and meat eaters. He loves categorizing his creatures and we often hear him ask from his room if a certain animal eats meat or plants or both so he can know what group to put it in.

Another meat eater that Cade loves is sharks. It is hard to part with them when it is naptime, so sometimes the shark sleeps with Cade.