swim class: torture or pleasure?

there were no plans to put reese in swim class this year. i thought we had accomplished some pretty big goals already.  one, potty training, and two, as of maddie's birthday my lil' guy finally mastered drinking from a straw. by the way, this was a huge event in our house. we have been trying to teach/show him for years now. part of his delays are sensory motor issues surrounding his mouth, which has a lot to do with his eating habits and not being able to drink from cups or straws due to not having motor control of his lower jaw/lips. there are so many little things we as parents take for granted when our kids naturally accomplish milestones, and i never thought i would be jumping up and down with excitement the day he finally drank through a straw. his little successes give us such joy. plus he has been in summer school the last 2 summers so i didn't want to push too hard. but then we saw how cautious/scared he is of the water and every summer he becomes a little more scared.  he will not let us hold him in the water, he only wants to sit on the steps of the jacuzzi wearing floaties. so we thought he would listen to a teacher being the disciplined kid he is and at least get some water basics down. 

the first 3 days looked like this:

day 4 looked like this:

so happy we decided to push him.  the fear is still there, but has diminished a lot.  he still refuses to swim with no floaties around us. but he will go in the deep end and jump in and have fun. i see more swim classes in this lil' guy's future...