La Petite Baleen

Every Thursday morning, John takes Evelyn to her 8:45am class at La Petite Baleen. I can't believe she's already had a month's worth of lessons. I went to her first class and was blown away by the facilities -- from the gorgeous setting of Crissy Field, near the Warming Hut and the beach with Golden Gate Bridge as the backdrop, to the miles of new changing tables in the pristine changing rooms. And let's face it, that cute little whale slide had me at hello.

Evelyn had a pretty good time on her first day, smiling and laughing and going along with the activities with a pretty open mind. They put on flippers, sang songs, swam through tunnels, practiced climbing out of the pool (or at least, learned about the concept, with lots of parental help), and learned how to walk their hands along the wall to get around the perimeter of the pool. The only thing I remember her not liking was lying on her back in the water.











I missed her next two lessons because of work, and was finally able to go last Thursday. In such a short time, she's become so much more comfortable in the water. First off, she's willing to keep goggles on the entire time, which is just about the most hilarious thing. And instead of being coaxed into "jumping" (i.e. being lifted by Papa) off the edge of the pool and into the water, she's jumping in herself without hesitation, and doesn't mind it when her face and head go under water.



One of my favorite activities of the class, and definitely one of Evelyn's, is where they set up a floaty thing as a sort of walkway and have the kids run off it and into the water:



And that whale slide... On the first day, I looked at that and thought, Wow, Evelyn's going to go down that slide one day. Maybe upon graduation or something. How naive of me.



What more can I say? I am just loving this swim class.