Water we been doing?

We just finished our two weeks of swimming lessons--what a crazy schedule! Carmen and Gabriel had theirs at 8:30 every morning, but Paloma's (with David) were at 6:40 every night. It seems like 10 hours in between ought to be plenty for everything else, but not so much.
After the first day, Paloma understood that her lessons were at night. "I swim tonight!", she'd tell people all day.
She enjoyed the Swim Jim, a contraption that allowed her to be neck-deep in the water.
But if you ask her what her favorite part was, she'd tell you, "Diving board!"
Paloma's teacher was Courtney, a former student of mine from before I was married!

I remembered her first name and that she'd been a gymnast the instant I saw her.

Even after all of the lessons, Paloma still isn't that brave about jumping from the edge. She still wants to be able to touch or almost touch the hands of whoever will catch her. Which is crazy because anywhere else shye climbs and jumps with abandon--unfortunately and much to my consternation, she can climb the bunk beds!
One night, after rushing dinner to get there, David & Paloma arrived for swimming lessons, but there was thunder, so they just waited and never swam. This made a big impression on Paloma, apparently. The next night, as they arrived, she said, "It's not raining today."

This is Carly, a former student of mine who I later discovered is a cousin of Lauren (Allison's daughter, my niece). We didn't know that the whole time she was in my class. My mom ran into her somewhere and asked if she knew me. She told Mom, "She's my favorite teacher!"
A former student, Jeff, said he's taking summer school English in my classroom now:
This is a former student, Reba:
The morning of Carmen and Gabe's last swim lesson, we were allowed to go in and take video and pictures. Unfortunately, I was not thinking ahead enough to realize what that meant for Paloma: a departure from the norm and temptation to get in the water.

Every time I tried to shoot video, she tried to get in the shallow water. (She'd enjoyed the same pool at Gabe's birthday party and could not understand why all of the other kids were swimming and she couldn't.) Taking her out of the water led to this:
But who can blame her? Her brother and sister were playing here:
This is Gabriel posing with one of his teachers, Tricia, a former yearbook kid & favorite student of mine.
Carmen's teachers were Kaitlyn & Will:
Next year, she'll have to go to a different pool/ park to move up a level (where the water is deeper).

During Carmen & Gabe's swimming lessons, I took Paloma to the playground at the same park on 8 of the 10 days. She preferred the slide to everything else and only wanted to swing on our last day there.

One day, she took her baby (one of many) and let her play at the park too. (Incidentally, she goes down easier for naps these days when I tell her to put her babies down for a nap—“close your eyes, baby” to each doll she brought with her into the crib that day).

Most of the days, she willingly left the playground to go and get Gabriel & Carmen.


Since David took Paloma to her lessons, we only went with them three times. Once, the kids played at the park, but it was so hot at that hour, we didn't do it again.

One time, the kids swam during the lesson, and during the last lesson, they had to just watch because we were headed to the Fine Arts Camp program afterwards.