Water Baby

During the year I've taken off work to spend with little James, I wanted to do as much with him as possible.  Early on in his life, I took this idea to the extreme and started attending many free and paid classes with him.  17 weeks later, I've become weary of most of all but a handful of these. 

One that remains is his weekly swimming lesson.  It takes place on a weekly basis in a heated pool with about five other babies.  Some of it is very fluffy - for instance, we all stand in a circle, hold the babies, and softly sing "The Wheels on the Bus" while slowly revolving.  James shows little interest in these silly games - while they are probably designed to make the babies comfortable in water, James was fine from the beginning.  The real value of the class lies (for me, at least) in the challenging parts - the dunks under water, for instance.  Most recently, the instructor would take the baby and push it underwater towards the mother, who would take it out.  It was a scary moment, but he emerged fine, and seemed to like it well enough.  It seems that with parenthood, it's the scary moments that will end up being the most rewarding.  Singing in a circle is safe, but forgettable.  And cringeworthy.