Rigidity

Happy Easter everyone!

Riley loves to be in the pool. I wish we had a community pool in our neighborhood. I would be all over taking both boys to the pool in the summer. We don't have many options, but I am going to do some research.

Today we got a good look at the rigidity that comes along with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Riley loves to be in the pool. He loves to bob up and down, go under water and jump in from the shallow end. He can swim, but he wants to do it his way, all the time. He's not a strong swimmer, but at lessons last summer he was able to swim the length of the pool. To advance in Scouts, he has to complete a swimming requirement. Kevin decided today would be the day to do it, and he would video tape the event to show the Scout leader. Easier said than done. The requirement involved him jumping into the deep end (of 5 1/2 feet), and swimming the length of the pool. Lots of complaining (and a few tears) from Riley: "I can't swim that good" "I don't want to" "It's too deep to jump into" etc. LOTS of negotiations from Kevin and I. I finally gave up, but Kevin persisted. I guess he eventually told him that we could maybe stick in a little trip to Disneyland when we head for Legoland on Wednesday. We ARE going to Disneyland, but it's supposed to be a surprise, and has been part of the plan all along. He got into the pool and did it right away at that. Sort of. Once Kevin released him to play in the pool, he was happy as a clam, and JUMPING into the shallow end of the pool. His way.

I am happy that he has some swimming skills-although he's nowhere near my nieces who are super comfortable in the water, and good swimmers. It's taken a LONG time to get Riley into the water to learn to swim because he was always so scared of the water. Because he was so hesitant, Quinn has been hesitant. Quinn's skills are better though, but he's so small, he can't touch the bottom of pools almost anywhere. Both boys will be back in the water for lessons this summer. I have finally found a place that actually teaches arm strokes, something we have never had at Happy Fish or Fremont Swim School-both local, popular places. It's been just expensive splashing around in the water, blowing bubbles for us at those locations. This new place, Calphin, is awesome though, and both boys have learned arm strokes. I will sign them up for the summer sessions.