We spent two afternoons playing in our backyard pool. Yesterday I introduced it to Emily and while she enjoyed playing she was very careful. She splashed, poured water on herself, moved toys around and had a good time. Today when we went out to play she was so much more bold. She was willing to get in by herself, move around, stand up, get in and out. She hasn’t discovered the fun game of pouring water on Mommy yet, but it will come soon.

Emily and I went to our city outdoor pool to play in the hot Tennessee afternoon. I didn’t take my camera and get photos because I wasn’t sure that I could manage both the camera and the child at the pool. Now that I have been once I know better what to expect and will take one next time. The pool has a ‘walk-in’ shallow section with water that shoots into the pool. We started walking in at that point so that Emily could get used to the water. I sat in the water as she inspected the shooting water. I was surprised that she didn’t last very long there and actually wanted to walk deeper into the pool. Most of this section was only 2 feet so she was able to walk pretty far before the water got very high on her. At some point she decided that she wanted to walk and explore outside of the pool. I wouldn’t let her do this and she found it quite upsetting. She just didn’t understand that the hot pavement would hurt her tender feet. To offer some distraction she and I went into the deeper section of the pool and played games of spinning and bouncing in and out of the water. She was very happy as long as she was holding on to Mommy. She was not keen on the idea of floating on her back and letting go of Mommy. Swimming was not much more successful, for some reason she wants to maintain some amount of control. After a little over an hour she was tired and a little grumpy and we headed home to get a much needed nap. The whole trip was fun and we will have to do it again soon.