Autism. Swimming lessons and Christmas

Bright eyes had a surprisingly good Christmas.  He coped with sitting up at the table, opening presents and being nice to relatives.  It was very heartening.  He even played in the group with various small cousins and seemed to have a pretty good time.

I look back to former Christmases and I'm very pleased with the progress we've made.

A whole other thing is swimming lessons.  These are being run over an eight day block at our local pool during January.

The last time I signed both my boys up for swimming lessons they refused to go and it was a complete waste of money.  This time we've had relative success.

The first day, my husband and I had to do a smash and grab to get him into the car. I said he didn't have to swim but he had to stay at the pool while the lesson went on.  Thankfully our wonderful teachers aide was also at the pool with her son who was in the same class.

"Do you want me to get him out?"  she asked me.

"knock yourself out," I said.

Two minutes later, there was bright eyes out of the car, in the pool area asking to get changed.  He participated in the whole lesson and despite it being a reasonably cool day had a great time.

The second day he had a small tantrum about going but got there and made it through two thirds of the lesson.  The third day was much the same although he finished the lesson and today it all went fine as well.

Four days down, four to go.  And hey, he may even be able to swim at the end.