Jonathan's a Swimming Boy!

I am so, so, so proud! Jonathan swam today, both underwater and on top of the water. I could not believe my eyes! This was his third lesson with the private instructor (Miss Leslie, and she's fabulous! She also taught my niece how to swim.) and she was so amazed also. I bought him some Speedo goggles on clearance at Kohl's yesterday, and he had them on during this lesson, and he just went underwater and started swimming. He kept telling Trystan (who is also taking lessons) "It's easy to swim underwater, T, you just need some goggles." He thinks the goggles made him suddenly able to swim. If that's true, best 5 bucks I've ever spent! This is the same kid who flunked out of lessons two summers ago. Leslie tried a few times and he screamed the entire time until she finally told me that she did not think he was ready. Which I think showed some integrity considering how much she gets paid an hour. Last summer, we took lessons at the Satellite High pool, and he made huge progress in getting over his fear of the water and building up his confidence. But this summer, he has just taken off! All of the sudden he is able to use his arms and his legs together, which up until this point, I think was just too hard to coordinate. I knew we had come a loooong way during his lesson last week when he floated on his back briefly. Laying on his back used to always be his freak out trigger during lessons. Judging from all of the other kids at the Sherwood Pool a few weeks ago, this is pretty common.
Every time he would go under water and swim today, I wanted to go run and jump in the pool and get him out. All of my energy the past 4 and a half years has been focused on keeping him from going under (in the pool, bathtubs, ponds, the ocean, fountains), so it was a little unnerving to suddenly seeing him moving around under the surface of the pool. He was so proud of himself. The look on his face when he saw that he could do it, he really can swim, was priceless.
I am so proud of him! I was clapping and cheering like crazy. After his terrible week of disobedience and defiance, he is suddenly my sweet and darling boy again (his behavior has improved), and then he goes and SWIMS! He has totally redeemed himself.
OK, to sum up! My baby boy can swim! And I could not be more proud of him!